A Graduate School of Education (GSE) student was allegedly denied her request to walk at a later graduation ceremony. The student, who requested anonymity citing fears of retaliation due to her international status, had to fly out to her graduation, leaving multiple ill family members.
The student graduated from the GSE in winter 2026 and moved to Seattle in the spring. When her husband and 1-year-old son fell ill, she decided that making it to the June ceremony was unlikely.
The student emailed GSE leadership in late May requesting to walk the next year. Her request was denied.
“My choices at that point were to not walk this year, to leave my son with my sick husband who was recovering after two months of illness or bring my son with me to graduation,” the student said in an interview with The Daily.
With no family support in the Bay Area, traveling alone and managing a baby’s naptime during an hours-long ceremony did not appeal to her.
“It would have been a disaster,” she said.
In emails obtained by The Daily, associate director of degree programs Jeremy Edwards told the student that GSE graduates are invited to attend the diploma ceremony only once, in their designated degree conferral year. Connie Chang, associate dean of student affairs, mentioned in another email that the GSE made exceptions to this policy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The GSE is honored to welcome graduates and their families at our diploma ceremony, and we work hard to ensure all students have the support they need to participate fully,” Brooke Donald, associate dean of communications and public affairs, wrote in a statement to The Daily. “Graduates who miss their ceremony may request permission to participate in a later one, per University policy. Exceptions are considered on a case-by-case basis.”
Edwards and Chang appealed to Anne Harper Charity Hudley, associate dean of educational affairs, but she denied the student’s request.
Dean Daniel Schwartz also explained that many records are expunged once students graduate, and the bureaucratic lift of the request is large.
“We have quite a few requests like yours (four this year), and there is not a clear principle for granting you an exception and not the others,” Schwartz wrote in an email to the student obtained by The Daily. “While I am inclined to grant exceptions because of the importance of the ceremony to the graduates, I will not overturn my academic services team that works so hard to make everything work.”
Seeing no other option, the student decided to walk in June. She paid for child care, booked last-minute flights and left her son at home with her sick husband.
“I got to walk,” the student said. “We figured it out. We had the money. I wish it wasn’t this hard.”
She expressed frustration after learning from a mom group chat that others were allowed to walk after their designated graduation. One mother wrote that she graduated from the Graduate School of Business (GSB) in spring 2026 and was approved to walk in summer 2027 because of a job-related move.
“Some departments like law or GSB just let students walk [at other ceremonies],” the student said. “They can only walk once, but they give you exemptions to walk, especially if you have family reasons. But the GSE decided that this is too much work for them.”
The Daily reached out to the GSB and the Law School for comment.
“I’m still kind of stumped by what is this major administrative hurdle that stops them from letting one person walk next year,” the student said. “Graduation is a big deal, especially if you’re doing a graduate program.”
Despite walking alongside her cohort and having friends in the audience, none of the student’s family members saw her graduate. She didn’t get to spend time with anyone because she flew to Stanford in the morning and left after the ceremony to return to her son. Overall, she said her graduation was not the experience she wanted.
“I have space and distance from it now, so it’s not as upsetting,” the student said. “It’s very hard to explain why this was so traumatic and so hard. This is the first time I’d left my kid. He was still breastfeeding.”
A saving grace during all this was the group chat of Stanford mothers that the student reached out to for advice. They recommended nannies in the area and offered to gather baby cuddlers to soothe the graduate’s son during the ceremony.
“The mom group has been really amazing,” the student said.
She was not alone in feeling unsupported by the University as a parent in academia. A sixth-year Ph.D. student at the GSE told The Daily in a statement that graduate students who are also mothers should share advice with each other about how to maximize Stanford’s resources and learn their rights. She requested anonymity, citing fears of retaliation due to her international status.
“I’ve had two children during my program, so I had to navigate the system a bit,” she said. “The system should be designed with the student at the center, considering different contexts and situations.”