Currently outside my window are approximately 1,000 graduating students, their families, and a troupe of bagpipers.
Yup, bagpipers.
The glory of the academic regalia on parade is somewhat dimmed by the fact that for some reason, approximately 1/3 of the females are wearing robes at least a foot too short, approximately knee-length in fact. This looks sloppy and inappropriate.
I mean, we live in what I presume to be the world capital of casual dress, Boulder, CO. If you're going to dress up in traditional regalia, would it kill you to pay a little attention to detail? Otherwise, screw it and just graduate in your flip-flops and tank tops.
And the tassel goes on the right until you graduate. On the RIGHT.
I'm really proud of all of them, and would be more so except that as a curricular affairs person, I knowmaybe 10% of them aren't actually graduating. They're walking early and won't be done until approximately mid-August, that is if they actually take and pass the summer school course they're currently waitlisted for...This also contributes to emptying the ceremony of meaning for me.
But hey, it's 8:30 in the morning and most of them are still sober. That's a good beginning to responsible homage to the academic tradition.
3 comments:
Hey now! Some of us grad students "faux graduated" too! I just have to finish and defend and then the ceremony will be retroactively real, I promise.;-)
Yeah! I too, walked before I finished my undergrad thesis. In fact, I walked into my degree program's reception with my parents afterwards and my advisor pointed at me from across the crowded room and yelled "Fraud! Fraud!!" And I finished it that July, thank you very much. It didn't take away from the meaning of graduation day, I can assure you. I wanted to graduate with the people who had shared the four years with me.
I think colleges should EITHER have May, August, and December graduation ceremonies and not let you walk until you're done, OR
just have one big May ceremony per year so people can celebrate with "their class." Having multiple graduations and then allowing people to choose which one they wish to attend ruins the point, in my opinion. I totally get wanting to graduate with 'your class' as an undergrad, or choosing the 'big ceremony' as a grad, especially since many grad students move before they actually finish due to job needs. I do, however, think it makes the August and December ceremonies comparatively lame because they become ceremonies for people that finish at 'odd times' rather than reflecting the reality that probably 33% of students actually finish on those timelines.
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