‘Graduation’ so virtual most of Rhodes missed it

University’s test link accessed ahead of publicity for the event

Thousands of Rhodes University students graduated this week — but without their knowledge.

Those whose names featured in a virtual university graduation ceremony video link, which went up on the university’s YouTube site late on Monday night, say they knew nothing about the celebration of their achievement until after the event.

But, it turns out that the university had not left its students out of the loop.

A link to the graduation video had been uploaded briefly to test it out on Monday night.

Instead, dozens of astonished students had almost immediately found the link and shared it.

The video reportedly contains some speeches followed by the names of all 2020 graduates scrolling across the screen.

The Student Representative Council immediately reacted on Tuesday, expressing its disappointment that students were not notified well in advance of the virtual event.

“We are deeply disappointed by the fact that students who worked extremely hard and were waiting for this moment all year long were not even notified of the ceremony via email,” SRC secretary-general Shanti Khosa said.

“Graduation is an extremely important moment for every graduate, especially those graduates who are the first in their families to obtain a tertiary qualification and for those who were graduating for the first time.”

The university was forced to postpone its formal graduation ceremonies, which traditionally take place in Makhanda in April, because of the Covid-19 pandemic and accompanying lockdown.

University spokesperson Veliswa Mhlope said the university had intended publicising the event.

It had prepared and put together the ceremony video well in advance.

Letters were to be sent out to graduands and other stakeholders directing everyone to the link.

Instead, savvy students had accessed the experimental link before any publicity.

The link was subsequently marked private and made inaccessible.

“Unfortunately people saw it before we could kick off our campaign this morning,”

Mhlope said.

She said the letters, messaging and publicity had gone out by Tuesday afternoon and the link was reactivated for people to enjoy at their leisure.

Khosa said the SRC understood that things operated differently under a pandemic but it would have been courteous of the university to at least inform graduands of the progress of its plans for the virtual graduation ceremony and issue a formal invitation with a set date.

The SRC demanded that the university publicly apologise to all students, graduates, and their families, guardians and funders for not notifying anyone of the ceremony and for publicising the video of the virtual proceedings without their knowledge.

It demanded that the university set a specific date for the virtual graduation ceremony, promote it, and publicise a livestream of the event on all social media platforms.

“Although the virtual graduation video was enjoyable, we believe that the lack of promotion ahead of the event did not uphold the seriousness and the formality of a graduation ceremony.

“We truly hope the university will take immediate action to do right by the class of 2020.”