The SAC has a room set up for soon-to-be college graduates to have cap-and-gown photos taken. Those of us who have already graduated from some place (Tulane ’04) probably remember going to such a room as college seniors. However, when I give it some thought, the whole process seems quite ridiculous.

Each year, seniors are told there is a photographer available to take pictures. The photographer dresses the student in a tear-away fake gown and mortarboard hat. The student holds a fake diploma scroll and stands in front of a backdrop with a picture of books on it. The photographer snaps some shots; and bing-bang-boom, we are done. Several months later, the student (or the student’s folks) receives a contact sheet along with some order forms charging an exorbitant amount of money for these staged photographs, which will be sent to various interested parties to provide evidence that the student has graduated from a college-like setting.

Does this seem odd to anybody? The picture is one big lie. Yes, the student is presumably going to graduate; however, at the time the picture is taken, the student was still just a senior. The gown, diploma, and books are all fakes; and really, what is the deal with the books? Are people really looking at these photographs thinking, “Wow, Phil graduated from State U, and look at all those books! He really has been studying…” Do we really think our relatives are so stupid that the mere implication that books are involved will impress them?

Perhaps there are reasons for paying money to essentially perpetrate a fraud against your friends and family. Maybe students wish to possess graduation photographs at the moment of graduation. This might facilitate quick distribution to relatives as souvenirs of the occasion. However, are we really that impatient that we are willing to pay large amounts of money for a picture of a contrived scene?

Maybe the student’s folks just want this photograph for the future, so that the student can cherish the memory of college graduation. What memory does this photograph recall, though, other than the day a seemingly bright college student played dress up for ten minutes? Furthermore, I don’t know about Temple University graduation, but at Tulane, there was another photographer snapping photographs as I received my real diploma. She sent another contact sheet with another order form. What was the purpose of fake graduation pictures when I could purchase the real thing? It was, and still is, just a sham to take more of the students’ money. Everybody goes along because it has been this way for so long that nobody thinks about how ridiculous the whole process is. Maybe I am just jaded because I just realized I wasted a good bit of money three years ago.