As the school year comes to an end, seniors are itching for graduation when they walk across the stage and receive their diploma. Many are scrambling to finish up online classes and lift lab to ensure that they get to graduate at the end of the month. As graduation approaches and the class of 2018 prepares to graduate, there are a few policies and things to remember for the night of graduation.

Graduation planning has been taking place since last May. As classes have gotten larger, the conditions for graduation taking place of campus have become worse.

For both comfort and accessibility, this year is the first year that graduation will not be taken on campus. It will be at Arizona State University at the Wells Fargo Arena. While some are sad about not being able to graduate on the campus of their high school, the arena will be air conditioned and will be more comfortable for the guests. The size of the arena will also hold many more than PHS could which means there will be no guest limit per students. There will be several designated areas for handicap seating.

There are still a few changes to this ceremony besides the locations. Males and females will now be mixed in the ceremony. Due to the size of the arena, some students will be on the floor and the remaining students will be up in the stands. Joe Greene and Heather Patterson have a variety of maps on entering and exiting to ensure that everything goes smoothly.

This graduating class has a whopping 928, which is the largest graduating class that there has been. The classes will continue to grow in the following years. There will be three speakers at graduation. Tamilia Thomas, Chris Smith, and Joanna Gunararj will all be taking the stage to wrap up the class of 2018.

Following the ceremony students will walk through the tunnel to the west area and back to the front of the Well Fargo Arena outside to greet their families.

Make sure to review the clear bag policy at ASU before arriving. Bags must be of a certain size and there are many prohibited items. Prohibited bags will not be allowed in the stadium to increase the safety of the arena.

The graduation will be will have a live stream for any guest who will be unable to attend. The link will be available to night of the event. Here’s to the class of 2018.