Canned graduations further ‘knock’ to city economy
THE latest graduands from the University of Otago will remember graduating this year for a different reason.
A May record of 1290 people will graduate in absentia this month, after four planned inperson graduation ceremonies — two for today and two next Saturday — were cancelled because of the coronavirus lockdown.
The May graduations have been previously estimated to inject more than $1 million into the Dunedin economy.
Enterprise Dunedin chief executive John Christie said the cancellations were a further economic ‘‘knock’’ to the city, including to the already hardhit hospitality, accommodation and retail sectors.
However, university plans to add further ceremonies later in the year would help offset this, he said.
Among those graduating in absentia today is Dunedin clinical nurse Merrilee Williams (40), after gaining a master of health science degree through a demanding regime of parttime study and working fulltime over the past four years.
‘‘I had the makeup booked, dinner booked and the family primed,’’ Mrs Williams said about the hopedfor ceremony.
The lockdown and the cancelled May ceremony were ‘‘pretty gutting’’, but she had taken it in her stride.
A university spokeswoman said that, apart from the inabsentia graduations, a further 692 people who were to have graduated this month had opted to graduate in person later in the year.
Mrs Williams, a nurse at Mercy Hospital, said she would still celebrate and order goodquality takeaways.
‘‘I’m really splashing out on dinner and I might even dress up,’’ celebrating with her husband Kerrin and children Charlotte (9) and Hannah (20), she said.
A university spokeswoman said that extra ceremonies would be organised ‘‘for those who missed out’’ on graduating because of the coronavirus crisis.
It was far too soon to tell what public health measures would be required in future, but the possibilities included potentially adding to August’s planned single ceremony, she said.
Among the inabsentia graduates were 716 who had earlier planned to do so, a further 200 who had opted for this, after the ceremony cancellations, and 370 had opted for inabsentia graduation, with a ceremony later in the year.