USC graduations no longer will feature guest speakers

The University of South Carolina has ended its practice of having guest speakers at its graduation ceremonies.

Starting this May, only USC president Harris Pastides will deliver the address at the school’s three graduation ceremonies, the school said Tuesday.

“It’s just getting increasingly difficult to line up three quality speakers for the May commencement,” USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said of the decision. “Other institutions will have one big commencement, but three is difficult. More commencement speakers are starting to demand higher and higher commencement fees, and we’ve never paid for it and don’t intend to.”

The state’s flagship university still will confer honorary degrees.

The school also announced it will limit to six the number of guests a graduate can bring to a graduation ceremony, starting in December. The school wants students to return extra tickets for other students who need more.

USC only has issued graduation tickets once before, when Vice President Joe Biden spoke at Colonial Life Arena in May 2014, Stensland said.

The new six-ticket limit was necessary to keep graduation at the 18,000-seat arena, the school said.

This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 3:02 PM with the headline "USC graduations no longer will feature guest speakers."