UF: Will let grads walk at own pace

Future University of Florida graduates will get a little more time to do their thing during commencement — whatever that thing might be.

About 900 UF graduates crossed the stage at the 2 p.m. commencement ceremony Saturday. Of that number, about 30 were shooed along by a robe-wearing marshal, via a gentle guiding hand, a push or a more forceful shove.

The actions, designed to keep the ceremony on track, left UF President Kent Fuchs apologizing on Twitter on Sunday.

UF spokeswoman Margot Winick said Monday that in future ceremonies, officials will no longer physically rush graduates.

UF administrators have been busy wrapping up the many graduation ceremonies that ran throughout the weekend and into Monday, and they had not had

time to review recordings to see how things unfolded.

The Gainesville Sun reviewed the Saturday afternoon graduation that drew much criticism from graduates and alumni, who were upset that students’ celebrations were cut short. The incident made national television news Monday evening.

Near the end of the ceremony, one man dances for three seconds before the marshal approaches him, grabs his right arm and shoves him down the line toward his dean, who shakes the graduate’s hand.

As the marshal begins to walk back to his position, another man walks onstage and begins dancing. Almost immediately, the marshal grabs the graduate from the front with both arms, turns the graduate around while he is still moving and pushes him down the stage.

The next graduate, a woman, doesn’t walk across the center of the stage but more to her right, gazing at the marshal on her left.

Three minutes later, a woman walks onstage and begins dancing. The marshal approaches her, grabs her shoulder and walks her down the stage. She almost loses her mortarboard in the process.

The graduates who danced are black. Though the marshal rushed 30 or so graduates across the stage, the two men were treated with the most force.

The marshal shooed some graduates with his hand. A white woman flashed a “rock on” sign. A black man walked onstage slowly. A black woman got low for a dance move. They all are shooed.

One Asian woman stopped onstage to take a selfie. The university representative placed his hand behind her and pushed.

One man did a backflip on stage. The representative approached him, but the graduate was back on his feet and walking forward before the representative reached him.

A woman paused on stage, appearing to wait for the woman next in line to join her on the stage.

The marshal pushed the woman from behind.

UF officials have thus far declined to identify the marshal by name or by his position at the university.

The ceremony celebrated students who received their bachelor’s degrees from the College of Nursing and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Fuchs apologized for representatives on the stage being “inappropriately aggressive” in a statement Sunday.

Winick said in an email to The Sun that Fuchs “personally called each of the students impacted to convey his apology and to let them know that the practice of physically interfering with students’ celebrations to rush them across the stage was stopped from the graduation ceremonies thereafter.”

The university has four more graduation ceremonies this month and another in June.