Joe Wilensky

Facilities Services prepares the stage for commencement at Schoellkopf Field on May 19. About 200 staff members spend the week prior to Commencement setting up campus for the weekend's ceremonies.

While you’re enjoying the food and music this weekend and taking selfies with the graduates, pause for a moment to give thanks to all the people who make commencement happen.

From Wednesday through Sunday about 200 Cornell staff members will be putting up tents, setting out chairs, mowing, sweeping and hammering as they set up the campus for the year’s climactic weekend.

“The amount of effort that goes into it is unbelievable,” said Juliet Parsons, events coordinator for Facilities Services, who manages the operation.

On Wednesday, staff began putting up information booths and food tents all over the quads and setting up chairs in Barton Hall for the Ph.D. hooding ceremony; Barton is also the alternate Commencement site in case of inclement weather.

Thursday morning, a crew of 20 began setting up Schoellkopf Field for the Saturday convocation and Sunday graduation events. After a final trimming of the grass, they will lay out plastic sheeting on the field turf and over that unroll a hard plastic floor, both to protect the turf and avoid injuries. “We don’t want high heels digging into the grass,” Parsons explained.

Around 1:30 p.m., while carpenters were assembling the stage, they started setting up chairs, following chalk lines to keep the rows straight. For safety, every chair has to be zip-tied to the one next to it. A staff member sits on a small rolling platform to move along the rows for the job. (On Sunday afternoon the ties will be cut one-by-one.)

The setup of 7,232 chairs will take until Friday afternoon. After convocation on Saturday the crew will come back to fix misaligned rows.

Sound for the speakers is provided by Ithaca’s Calf Audio. Facilities provides round-the-clock security – starting even before setup – to protect their equipment and everything else.

Elsewhere, staffers will be receiving supplies from off campus: flowers from Baker’s Acres, golf carts to transport people with disabilities, caps and gowns for Ph.D. ceremonies, and 27,000 commencement programs, some to be delivered to college offices but most to be handed out in the stands by a crew of about 1,200 staff volunteers.

Meanwhile, other staffers put up 500 signs to tell you where to find everything. Most signs are re-used from last year, but the sign shop will also be turning out new ones.

Parsons and members of the grounds crew will walk the entire procession route to check for hazards. Once events begin, Parsons will operate from a temporary office in Barton Hall, but mostly, she said, “I’ll be hanging out on the fields. Up to Bartels, over to the Arts Quad, checking on the tents.”

During and after, custodial staff will be circulating to pick up trash. In keeping with the university’s commitment to sustainability, food vendors are being encouraged to use compostable materials.

But it’s not over even when it’s over.

“We do a lot with Homecoming and Reunion,” Parsons concluded.