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In just two days more than 2,800 people signed a petition asking the University of Texas at Tyler not to make big changes to this spring’s commencement ceremony.

The university is planning to shift away from separating commencement into smaller ceremonies at the Cowan Center in favor of a single, outdoor ceremony at the new plaza on campus.

“UT Tyler is pleased to feature, for the first time, an outdoor ceremony for our spring graduates in the beautiful, newly constructed Patriot Plaza,” Lucas Roebuck, vice president for marketing, brand strategy and community engagement, told the Tyler Morning Telegraph in a prepared statement. “UT Tyler joins hundreds of other academic institutions that have outdoor spring ceremonies, including UT Austin, Rice University, University of Virginia, University of Pennsylvania and UNC Chapel Hill.”

Students and their families are once again raising concerns about weather, the prestige of the ceremony and more. The university had previously walked back on making the move for the fall 2019 ceremonies.

“The extended Patriot Plaza has the capacity to bring the whole UT Tyler family together to celebrate the most significant event of our university — the graduation of our students. The strength of our institution is amplified when we are together, and the current number of smaller ceremonies made that difficult,” Roebuck said.

Late Saturday afternoon, Rachel Barbey decided it was time to speak up. She said she created the petition on Change.org at 6 p.m. and was worried it might not take off.

She woke up Sunday to hundreds of signatures from current and past students and their families. By 5 p.m. Sunday more than 1,550 people had signed and hundreds left comments of support.

“I’ve been looking forward to graduating with my bachelor’s pretty much since I walked the stage in high school,” Barbey said. “I would expect a university graduation to be a formal, professional event. I don’t think the Patriot Plaza has the ability to fit that.”

In December, more than 1,300 degrees were conferred by UT Tyler, and more than 1,400 last spring.

The plaza itself has seen pushback from students since it was first announced. Patriot Plaza took the place of a large student and visitor parking lot in front of the campus University Center, which has long served as the hub of the university.

Roebuck said students recently had reached out to UT Tyler President Michael Tidwell, and he was listening to their concerns.

“Several students have been appointed by SGA to serve on the working group overseeing the graduation event,” Roebuck said. “We have been and will continue to be actively discussing our plans with student government, and continue to appreciate student input to help make the first outdoor graduation a great success.”

“I created (the petition) because everyone I had spoken to about the new graduation setup was completely against it,” Barbey said. “People have their views about the Patriot Plaza addition on campus, but I personally just don’t think it’s the place to have a graduation of hundreds of students.”

Historic weather data shows the weekend of May 1 typically has one of the highest chances of rain in Tyler, at an average of 35%. That average was compiled by Weather Spark using historic climate data from 1980 through 2016. The rain chance peaks at its year-round high at 36% later in the month.

Average temperatures are in the low to middle 80s, with high humidity, according to the data.

“May 1st in Tyler had a high temperature of 85 degrees,” Barbey said. “It’s Texas, we don’t do things outside from Easter to Halloween if we can help it.”

The university does have a contingency plan in place that would see the graduations move back to smaller, separate indoor ceremonies.

Students also are concerned about the capacity to bring in a crowd that, based on the university’s estimate last fall, could be up to 8,000 people total. The 500-seat amphitheater and circular area in front of it is supposed to be able to seat up to 2,000 graduates with seats for attendees in the grassy area leading up to the circle they call “the bowl.”

The Cowan Center typically can seat about 2,000 people if the balconies are used, and seating for commencement ceremonies has been limited to ticketed events to manage the crowd sizes.

Barbey said the combination of those factors is not what graduates had in mind for a day that’s meant to be a milestone experience.

“When I woke up (Sunday morning) and especially after I checked (the petition) at lunch, I was happy,” she said. “I’m glad that these students are understanding that we need this petition to be large scale in order to submit these signatures and have any sort of influence.”

Barbey plans to bring the petition to the university’s administration.

Roebuck said the university will soon have more detailed plans to present to students.

“Several UT Tyler departments have been hard at work to ensure that our graduation runs smoothly, finishes on time and becomes a memorable experience for students, their family and friends,” he said. “The cooperative effort includes collaboration between the president’s office, Student Government Association, registrar’s office, University Events, Media Production, Facilities Services, Student Success, alumni office and marketing and communications, all focused on making this graduation a positive experience … We look forward to sharing more details about the event in the coming weeks.

To read the petition, visit http://chng.it/Gzw9ZKWn

For more information about the spring 2020 Commencement Ceremony, visit https://www.uttyler.edu/commencement/