Commencements Proceed Amid Covid Fears
By: The Caravan
Nashwa Yousry Rashad and Norhan Ibrahim EL Araby are all smiles after receiving their MSc in Psychology
After a three-semester hiatus, the first of the long awaited commencements for the graduating classes of Spring ‘20 , Fall ‘20 and Spring 21 were held Monday evening.
The first school to honor its graduating students was the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS) at the Joseph B. and Ruth J. Ward field, otherwise known as the Sports Center Training field. The number of graduates was 127.
On Tuesday evening, it will be the turn of graduating students from the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy to take the stage to receive their diplomas.
“By the end of one very perplexing year, the commencement started echoing as a far-aspiration at the back of my mind. Now that I got to live this moment yesterday, the best I can say is that I got the proper closure for my splendid undergrad journey, and I’m grateful for this,” said Mariam El Prince, History and Arab Literature graduate.
Psychology graduate Mirna Saleh voiced equal gratitude.
“The commencement was really organized and COVID measures were taken seriously. I’ve honestly expected it to be less regulated. They’ve put water bottles under our seats and that was really needed. In my opinion, nothing was out of the order and no major mistakes were made,” she expressed.
But the commencement ceremonies almost never happened.
Dean of Students Deena Boraie said that the university administration deliberated extensively to ensure safe ceremonies amid rising coronavirus infections nationally and on campus.
The compromise was to reduce the number of guests allowed for each graduating student.
“Cases are rising daily and it’s worrisome…we’ve been having discussions and we created a third scenario that’s a balance between not having a commencement at all and having one with a large number of people that wouldn’t compromise everyone’s health,” said Boraie.
Boraie went on to say that with this decision they were able to reduce the number of attendees to around 1,000 instead of the originally estimated 1,600.
“It’s a risk but we hope everyone will be responsible enough…We care deeply for our graduates and we’re trying to make sure they have a formal commencement,” said Boraie.
Boraie also added that the commencements are being livestreamed.
But the decision to reduce the number of guests wasn’t a particularly popular one.
Some, like Hala Majed, Communication and Media Arts (CMA) graduate, said that her sister flew in from abroad especially to attend her graduation.
“I only have my parents and one sister, which means I only want three tickets – not even four, as [the AUC administration] had previously promised us,” Majed who graduated in Spring ‘21, told The Caravan.
“After all the postponements of the ceremony, I expected it to be celebrated, not downgraded,” she added.
A dress rehearsal for the ceremonies was held on Friday September 17, four days ahead the first commencement ceremony; students were able to pick up their caps and gowns, as well as their tickets.
Business Entrepreneurship graduate Omnia Yehia fall ’20 believes the set rehearsal date was inconvenient, as many graduates have jobs abroad now and couldn’t come to Cairo a week earlier just to pick up their tickets.
“AUC should’ve found another option that accommodates their working graduates better,” Yehia said.
In response to some claims that the Student Union did not do enough to voice student concerns, Vice President Nour Barakat said that they reached out to the administration immediately after the announcement was made.
“Up until last Thursday [September 16], we were proposing alternate solutions to the administration. We even suggested increasing the number of tickets and having attendees view the live stream from a separate location,” said Barakat.
Barakat said that when they were unsuccessful, they moved on to their next plan of action which was to help students secure additional tickets.
“So far everyone who has contacted me for the first commencement we managed to secure extra tickets for them. I hope to do the same for the rest of the schools,” said Barakat.
