WSU Facebook grad posts attract chuckles and frowns
Walter Sisulu University’s graduation season has taken a comedic turn, with several humorous posts on the institution’s Facebook page being shared to thousands of online users in the past two weeks.
While 6,469 graduates celebrated their academic excellence at all four WSU campuses – in Komani, Butterworth, East London and Mthatha – the institution’s Facebook page was a medium of online entertainment, leaving the masses laughing with some of the witty captions posted with colourful graduation posts between May 13 and Wednesday.
However, not all online users saw the funny side to the posts, with some saying the page’s administrator had taken things a bit far.
In one of the many posts that generated a lot of comments, the university posted a picture of a beautiful, newly graduated young woman with the caption: “Don’t chase the Swazi [eSwatini] borders just yet – #ProudlySouthAfrican #WSUGrad2019 #EastLondon.
This was in response to social media reports that South African men were moving to eSwatini after viral news reports claimed that King Mswati III had ordered men to have at least two wives or face jail.
Implying the university was one of the best, the administrator likened it to a popular smartphone: “WSU is the [Huawei] P30 of tertiary education.” Capitalising on the expropriation of land without compensation debate, WSU posted a picture of two journalism B-tech graduates – one white and the other black – with the caption: “Wherever you LAND an opportunity, grab it with both hands.”
In another, a picture of the university’s choir had the caption: “The matriculated cast of
with Aromat.”
The majority of the users gave WSU the thumbs up for its quirky humour.
Others even said they were more encouraged to go back to school, with one saying: “This admin reignited the spark in me, I have taken a decision to register for my postgrad at WSU. Fomo [fear of missing out] got to me. From Pretoria to Mthatha I am coming.”
But some felt WSU had taken things a bit far when they poked fun at students who do not have accommodation and end up squatting.
The post read:
[loosely translated it means: wake up squatter and heat up the water because the roommate is graduating. The landlord is graduating].
A user responded: “Whoever is updating this platform has a great sense of humour. Not sure if joking about squatting is correct approach from a university official media platform.”
WSU spokesperson Yonela Tukwayo said the Facebook page grew from 62,000 hits to over 73,000 during the graduation season.
“Our strategy was to make our graduation season fun not only for the graduates, but also current students, and to inspire them to focus on their studies so that they too can see themselves graduate.
“Secondly, we want to connect with our alumni and take them down memory lane to the time that they graduated.”
Tukwayo said WSU’s number of graduates increased from 4,800 in 2015 to 5,971 last year, and 6,469 this year.
“We still have the September graduation so this year we will graduate over 7,000 students. We also graduate close to 90 medical doctors.”
The faculty of educational sciences in Mthatha had the highest number of graduates with over 1,000.