Graduation is near. Freedom from student fees, tuition and other incidental fees awaits. Well, maybe not. There is still the expense of graduation.

Unfortunately, graduation costs us. Graduates who participate in the commencement ceremony must pay a $50 processing fee and purchase a cap and gown. Another problem with graduation at UH-Clear Lake is that students and families have to attend graduation at the main campus.

According to the Office of Enrollment Services, the $50 fee we pay when we turn in our application for graduation is used to process the application and pay for the ceremony and diploma.

Unless the university has to out-source workers to handle this process, which it does not, there should be no additional charge based on the cost of processing. All graduating students are required to pay this fee, but not all students participate in the actual graduation ceremony, which is what part of the fee covers.

It would be more appropriate to include graduation fees in our regular student service fees. Promoting a sense of community and school identity is difficult for a commuter school like UH-Clear Lake, but the task is made even more so when we are placed in the shadow of the University of Houston.

Having our graduation ceremony at UH just adds insult to our already injured sense of school spirit.

The university argues that we simply do not have the room to hold all the graduating seniors, their family and friends. This December, there are approximately 830 students graduating; that is a lot of people, especially if the figure is doubled or tripled to account for family members.

The truth is, however, at this university there are many students who choose not to participate in the ceremony, approximately 218 this year. There are many who do not want to take the time to drive downtown and sit through a long ceremony. There are, however, some alternatives to finding room for thousands of people here on campus.

One alternative would be to have an outside graduation. We have such a beautiful campus, why not take advantage of it for graduation ceremonies? Also, with Clear Lake High School next door, perhaps we could use their facilities. Anything to step out of the shadow of our big brother in Houston. Another alternative would be to make graduation a more intimate setting by having several small graduations designated by schools.

Graduation on campus could help promote our sense of community and school spirit, something that seems hard to come by in this suburban commuter school. The fee that we have to pay is unfair, and our current student service fees would be better suited for all students if graduation were included in it.

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