Behind the Scenes at Graduation

The 91st Gavilan College commencement was held on Friday, May 27. As always, the air was think with emotion: triumph, relief, and gratitude on the part of the students; relief, admiration, and pride from their families, and joy from the staff. This year the air was also thick with impending rain and indignation over the THOUGHT of rain at the end of May.

I admit I cry every year when I see the Gavilan College graduates enter the gymnasium and pass through the waiting lines of faculty members,  the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" nearly drowned out by the cheers of family and friends. Luckily the rain did not fall as the graduates walked down Sycamore Lane and across the bridge. It was the second time luck prevailed that day.

Just a few hours before the graduation ceremony, campus power went out. Everywhere. A truck had hit a utility pole in town and knocked out the electricity to our section of Gilroy. (This seems to be a fairly frequent occurrence on Fridays. Perhaps PG&E can investigate.)

The event was already set up indoors, with hundreds of chairs, programs, a stage, lighting, video screens, curtains......

What would we do? Could we hold graduation in the dark gymnasium? Would we cancel?

A "Plan B" was quickly developed. The graduation ceremony would go on! It was decided that (if the power did not come back on) the ceremony would be held outside rather than in the gymnasium, and that the graduates and guests would stand on the lawn, with a few chairs on hand for those with difficulty standing. We'd set up a generator to power the microphone. It would be a ceremony no one would forget!

We got a chance to try out our new emergency alert system, GavALERT,  sending out simultaneous texts, emails, and voice messages to all staff, keeping them in the loop. We posted on Facebook and Twitter. And when the power came back on (with enough  time to go back to "Plan A"), GavALERT was once again employed to communicate the good news.

The power outage was a suspenseful addition to an already hectic day, and an example of the teamwork and leadership evident at Gavilan College. (Special thanks to Facilities Director Jeff Gopp!)

Behind every great event is a great event committee. They are generally unnoticed, and deliberately unsung (because this day is about the GRADUATES, not the committee.)  The event committee works behind the scenes to make sure everything is right on the BIG DAY.

This committee is led by the indefatigable Grace Cardinalli. Grace has developed a system of charts, meetings and timetables that keep everyone on track with everything that has to happen to make the BIG DAY come off well. Program? Check. National Anthem vocalist? Check. Podium drape? Find it! Every detail within our control is itemized, planned, and double-checked, but sometimes the fates throw in a surprise. It strikes me that one test of leadership is persevering when everything you've meticulously planned is threatened by circumstances outside your control.

Kudos to the Graduation Committee: Grace Cardinalli, John Pruitt, Blanca Arteaga, Pablo Balancio, Alexis Bollin, Angelica Garcia, Jeff Gopp, Lynda Kerr, Ana Hipol, Noemi Naranjo, Cindy Starr, and Candice Whitney for a successful graduation ceremony.

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The Leadership Gilroy Class of 2011 also learned this lesson on June 5 when their class project, the Spice of Life Festival and Farmer's Market, was threatened by predictions of unseasonable rain. Happily, the predictions were not borne out and the festival was a sunny (albeit windy) success!

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Congratulations to the graduates!