The Gatepost Editorial: Turn up the volume at commencement

Framingham State is just under 100 days away from celebrating the Class of 2026 at the spring Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony.

Days are crossed off calendars, credits are meticulously counted, and each assignment submitted brings seniors that much closer to graduation. 

The Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony has been held at the DCU Center in Worcester since 2018, after students voted to move commencement from the Framingham Town Green to the DCU Center.

The scale of the arena allows students to bring as many family members as they would like without the need for tickets, making it a great, low-stress option for graduates and their families. 

While the most common complaints about holding commencement at the DCU Center are the distance from Framingham and the sporadic parking situation, a new complaint came up after audio issues ruined the pomp and circumstance of the day at the 2025 Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony. 

Students on The Gatepost Editorial Board who gathered at commencement to watch 12 colleagues walk the stage and receive their diplomas at the DCU Center witnessed the frustration and sadness of graduates, their families, and faculty as they were unable to hear most of the ceremony.

Faculty and students yelled toward the stage that they weren’t able to hear portions of Latoyia Edwards’ commencement speech, and she stopped multiple times to allow an opportunity for the issue to be corrected. 

A 2025 graduate told The Gatepost they were able to hear most of student commencement speaker Jeremy McDonald’s speech, but Edwards and President Nancy Niemi were completely inaudible. 

The graduate shared that the most frustrating aspect of the ceremony was being completely unable to hear Niemi’s final speech in which she conferred the degrees for the Class of 2025 and told them it was time to move their tassels. 

The only prompts the graduates could hear were shouts and sporadic, confused clapping from the audience.

There is no excuse for this moment to have turned into a heartbreaking disappointment because of a completely preventable issue.

The Gatepost interviewed a student employee who worked with Framingham State’s Audio/Visual team at the Commencement Ceremony. 

The student, who requested anonymity, said the DCU Center had recently installed a new audio system and certain speakers were not functioning properly, specifically the ones above the graduates and faculty. 

The student employee said the audio issues were not the fault of the Framingham State A/V team because they did not have control of the equipment. 

The Framingham State A/V team notified the DCU A/V team of the issue several times, but DCU staff did not rectify the issue. 

This is completely unacceptable. 

The DCU Center hosts commencement ceremonies for other universities, including the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Clark University, according to these institutions’ websites. 

This is an event that should have been well prepared for and A/V systems should have been thoroughly tested and in working order well before the morning of commencement. 

Instead, not only was the ceremony chaotic, but Framingham State’s A/V team was forced to shoulder the crowd’s frustrations over malfunctioning equipment over which they had no control. 

The embarrassment of this ordeal belongs solely to the DCU Center. 

The Class of 2025 deserved better. 

The Gatepost Editorial Board is calling on University administrators and Campus Events to have the necessary discussions with DCU Center employees before it is too late to ensure an issue like this does not occur at this year’s Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony. 

On a day that should have fulfilled every undergraduate student's expectations after a rigorous and incredible college career, we witnessed a ceremony riddled with audio malfunctions that unfortunately spoiled the experience for graduates, their families, and faculty.  

Framingham State and the DCU Center commit to hosting a ceremony that is worthy of the prestige of achieving an undergraduate degree from our institution. 

You don’t want to hear from us next year about this!