Guests Brace for Sweltering Heat, Long Waits at Obama Commencement Speech in Arizona

If you're going to see President Obama speak at the Arizona State University commencement next Wednesday, be sure to bring your sunblock.

The university is holding the ceremony outside on a day when the temperature's supposed to hit 98 degrees. And graduates are being told to show up as early as four hours ahead of time -- to clear security, and then swelter -- apparently prompting grumbling from guests in the community.

Sharon Erickson, the mother of a graduate student receiving her masters' degree on Wednesday, said she's appalled.

"I'm an upset mother," she told FOXNews.com. "People are very upset about this."

She said her daughter is the first to earn a post-graduate degree in the family but that her 81-year-old grandfather won't be able to attend because he can't sit in the heat for that long.

"There is no shade in the football stadium," Erickson said of Sun Devil Stadium where ceremonies will be held. "Right now there's no other alternative than to sit there and bake."

The university is telling guests and graduates to begin arriving in groups starting at 3 p.m. local time that day. Bachelor's graduates are supposed to arrive first, followed by master's graduates at 3:30 p.m. Doctorate recipients are told to arrive a half-hour later, followed by all other guests at 4:30 p.m. Obama doesn't speak until 7 p.m.

But university spokeswoman Terri Shafer said there's nothing Arizona State can do. She said doors open four hours early to make sure all 65,000 people who are expected to attend can clear the metal detectors in time for Obama's address.

"If we don't do it that way, people will be jammed up at the gates," she said. "In an ideal world, we'd love to bring them in as late as possible. It's just not physically possible."

Shafer said the earliest graduates to arrive will be directed to shaded areas of the stadium to wait out the mid-afternoon heat. She said the university will be providing water, as well as entertainment, for those stuck in the stadium for hours.

The university previously held graduation ceremonies in the indoor Wells Fargo Arena. Shafer said the university eventually was planning to move out of that arena because the crowds were getting too big, and that Obama's arrival was an "incentive" to do so.

With each graduate allowed to bring up to six family members, Shafer said guests are flying in from all over to see the president. Shafer said she hadn't personally heard any complaints about the set-up for Wednesday.

Anybody who endured the frigid temperatures on Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C., knows that people will put up with less-than-ideal conditions to watch Obama talk.

But Erickson, who lives in Scottsdale, said the university should have tried to hold the ceremony off-campus, at the Arizona Diamondback's Chase Field stadium or the University of Phoenix Stadium, both of which have retractable roofs and air-conditioning.

"Since this is a political event for Obama, the (Democratic National Committee) should have footed the rental bill for their/this event," she said in an e-mail.

Erickson said she and her husband will attend Wednesday's ceremony, but "if it gets to the point where it's overwhelming we're going to have to leave."