Often characterized by a flood of bright blue gowns shuffling onto the stage in single file, Hofstra University’s graduation ceremony is now being overshadowed by another topic: the use of automated systems.
This implementation first occurred during the December 2025 commencement ceremony, when automation was used to read off each student’s name. This system will be used again in May 2026.
Jess Eads, the senior vice president for Student Enrollment, Engagement and Success, and her student advisory board currently run a GroupMe chat titled “The Hofstra Pulse Check” – a space for the student body to directly ask questions, voice their concerns and get them addressed. Students in the channel first expressed concerns about this implementation on Oct. 18, 2025.
“At the graduation ceremony, we are not using [artificial intelligence],” Eads said on Wednesday, April 8, in the GroupMe chat. “It is a prerecorded name reader that is reviewed and approved by the graduate. The name is then pronounced correctly and appears under your photo as you walk across stage. I want to make sure the facts are correct here but also understand this is something that has been decided and we have not received any negative feedback after the December graduation ceremony.”
She said that those who attend the ceremony in May are encouraged to provide feedback afterward, which will be taken into consideration for the next cycle.
Later on Tuesday, April 14, Eads sent a message to the GroupMe from the commencement team with their reasons for implementation, which include: Graduates can listen to the pronunciation of their names before the ceremony, allowing them to confirm or correct it ahead of time. Additionally, graduates’ names and degrees will appear on the arena screen and graduates will receive a video clip of their moment crossing the stage.
All of these improvements were allegedly made in response to past ceremonies’ abundance of mispronunciations.
Students are even voicing their opposition outside of the “The Hofstra Pulse Check” group chat.
Taylor Sanders, a December 2025 Hofstra graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, commented on the matter.
“It is important to have your name pronounced correctly during your big day that you’ve worked so hard to get to,” Sanders said. “However, it takes away from a more personal experience of having somebody who may have contributed to your education say your name.”
Mia Santabarbara, a current industrial-organizational psychology and May 2025 graduate student with a degree in business management, also spoke on the subject.
“My graduation ceremony was the last ceremony where they had a faculty member read the names of new graduates as they walked across the stage, but in the following semester, I attended a Hofstra graduation ceremony where they used [AI] to read the names of new graduates,” Santabarbara said. “I am glad Hofstra is finding new ways to improve such an important ceremony, especially using technology to eliminate issues such as human error in pronouncing [a] new graduate’s name incorrectly. This being said, the biggest difference I felt was the lack of personalization.”
Santabarbara believes that growing and adapting with new technology is important for human growth but that utilizing this type of technology for such a monumental moment puts a damper on the importance of the ceremony. She stated that there are other ways to eliminate past issues than to have the distinctive AI chatbot voice run the ceremony.
Looking to graduate this May, senior Camryn Bowden, a journalism and political science double major, also commented on the topic.
“[The AI recorder in the form] didn’t get my name right, and it was kind of annoying to deal with,” Bowden said. “It’s better than having an administrator messing it up, but I still don’t like the idea of AI reading my name on the day that celebrates the connections and relationships I’ve built in my time at Hofstra.”
In the relayed message from the commencement team, there was also an explanation about the inner workings of the automated name program.
The graduation form provides students with three attempts to approve the pronunciation of their name. After those three attempts, they can upload their own audio recording. That recording is then sent to the Tassel platform, where a human in-studio recorder listens and recreates the pronunciation with their voice.
The final version is then matched with the Tassel voice for use during the ceremony. On the day of commencement, the preapproved recordings are stored locally on a laptop that plays when a QR code is scanned.
According to Tassel’s website, the program uses AI to handle most names smoothly. And when it can’t do that, the voice artist steps in.
Terry Coniglio, the vice president of marketing and communications at Hofstra, echoed Eads’ statement about automation usage at graduation.
“[Hofstra] will continue using its commencement management system Tassel, first introduced at the mid-year ceremony in December, for Spring 2026,” Coniglio said in the statement. “Hofstra does not use real-time [AI] to generate or announce names during commencement.”
Coniglio also emphasized that graduates are invited in advance to review, correct and confirm the pronunciation of their name, with all recordings finalized and reviewed by staff ahead of time.
“Graduates cross the stage, shake hands with the president and their dean and are individually recognized,” Coniglio said. “This approach helps ensure accurate pronunciation while enhancing the ceremony with [the] graduate’s name displayed on-screen, and each graduate receives a video keepsake of their big moment.”
