Students who graduate from the University of California-Berkeley can expect to spend roughly $120,000 for a four-year degree. This year, they still must pay an extra $10 to attend their own graduation ceremony, where they will also listen to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Students who do not cough up the cash before Wednesday, April 30 for the campus-wide commencement ceremony have been told they will not be able to attend on May 17 at California Memorial Stadium.

“[The money is] to absorb the cost of commencement,” Lila Blanco, director of external relations and the Office of Protocol at the university, said in an interview with The Daily Californian, the school’s official newspaper, Campus Reform reported.

Mrs. Pelosi’s office told Campus Reform that she is not being compensated for speaking.

A representative from the school contacted the Times to echo and expand upon Ms. Blanco’s sentiments, saying that a nominal fee to attend the campus-wide commencement has been in place since 2000. The representative said the fee helps to defray the logistics and production costs of holding an event with roughly 4,000 people in attendance.



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