As I posed for my senior yearbook photo, the photographer asked me what my school was so he could select the right tassel. “I have two,” I said. “Your home school,” he clarified. When I told him I wanted to be photographed with both, he looked very puzzled. I got a bit defensive: “I have worked hard for this degree from two schools, so I want to represent them both.”

I thought this would be the only graduation-related decision I’d have to make between my two schools — until I looked at the convocation schedule. Sure enough, both my ceremonies are at noon. Call it an identity crisis, but I am conflicted with which to attend. I originally associated with one school– the culture and the people, but in the last year I have gravitated toward the other. Sure, one is my “home school,” but that doesn’t mean I should choose its ceremony and its speaker and join that set of friends and peers to walk with. I am receiving Latin honors from both schools. My family is coming from Chicago, expecting me to walk at both convocations.

I asked an alumna, who graduated with the same dual, if she was able to attend both convocations last year. The answer was yes. I understand that for a school as big as SU, there are going to be scheduling conflicts. But I feel underappreciated.

Senior Meghan Rimol, a dual major at the same schools, shares my disappointment that the graduation schedule doesn’t allow her to celebrate her accomplishments in both programs. “Looking at the schedule, it seems that there are more accommodating options that could have been considered. Both schools have been an essential part of my Syracuse experience, and picking one over the other feels unfair to the time and work that I’ve committed to be a part of both.”

I couldn’t agree more. And although it’s just a ceremony, and does not necessarily sum up my entire academic career, one of the thoughts that kept me going as a struggling dual was the ability to one day attend both ceremonies. I wish the schools offered a solution to this conflict, but have heard nothing yet.

I am proud of both my majors; there is no favorite. I just want to have my moment. Well, I want to have my two moments.

Frieda Projansky
Public Relations; Information Management and Technology Major ’16