Marquette University commencement date still up in the air because of Bucks playoff schedule
Marquette University is about three weeks out from commencement, and families are still waiting to hear which date it will be.
The lack of scheduling clarity has frustrated families trying to make travel plans and book restaurant reservations.
Uncertainty surrounding the Milwaukee Bucks and their NBA playoff performance is causing the delay. Marquette slated the graduation ceremony for either May 11 or May 12 at Fiserv Forum.
Both dates fall during the second round of the NBA playoffs. Because the first round starts April 20, Marquette said on Thursday it was the university's understanding that it wouldn't receive notification of which date Fiserv would be needed until April 28, or game 4, at the earliest. The decision could come as late as May 4, game 7, depending on the Bucks performance.
That strays from what Marquette said in late February when the university said it expected to be notified of the commencement date "sometime in the next few weeks."
"To host an event of this size and with all the pomp and circumstance our graduates deserve, we wanted to secure the absolute best venue in Milwaukee to celebrate our graduates," the university said Feb. 29.
The new timeline also differs from what Marquette told WISN on Wednesday. A university statement said Marquette was working closely with Bucks staff to try to resolve the scheduling issue "in the next few days."
Marquette officials declined to respond to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel questions about the shifting timeline and whether the university would continue holding commencement at Fiserv in the future given the scheduling uncertainty associated with the NBA playoffs.
Adding to families' irritation is the fact that this year's class graduated high school in spring 2020. Many of the students saw their high school ceremony severely disrupted, if not canceled outright, because of the pandemic.
"Marquette leaders share in our students’ and their families’ frustrations and continue to ask for patience and understanding while the university awaits the Bucks’ schedule," the latest university statement said.
The Thursday statement also announced the ceremony's commencement speaker. Global Brigades CEO and co-founder Dr. Shital Vora will deliver the keynote address. As a student in 2003, Vora established the first Marquette Medical Brigades club, which morphed into the international nonprofit it is today.
Milwaukee Area Technical College is also holding its commencement at Fiserv and in limbo on the date. The event is scheduled for the weekend of May 17-19. The college's website indicates it would share a date "once the playoffs dates are known and no less than 30 days before the commencement weekend."
UW-Milwaukee doesn't face the same scheduling dilemma as Marquette and MATC. UWM's commencement is slated for May 19 at the UWM Panther Arena.
Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @KellyMeyerhofer.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette University commencement date in limbo
