Originally Posted by
Ranidad
My alma mater is not instilling confidence in its 2020 graduates. First world problems but a rant follows...
I understand that the pandemic has made planning events large and small difficult at best. Duke is not handling the 2020 graduation well at all. Communication has only been directly to graduates, infrequent, and lacking detail. For instance, it has been mentioned that anyone attending must be fully vaccinated but no indication of how that will be monitored/enforced.
My daughter graduated in 2020. Understandably, she had an abrupt end to her time at Duke and a virtual graduation two months later. Duke has continued to state that it was committed to honoring the 2020 graduates with an on campus ceremony.
In late May 2021 graduates received a save the date email for September 24-26, 2021, details to follow. A schedule of events with registration link was not emailed to graduates until mid July and requested registration by mid August. A Friday evening welcome reception, Midnight gathering in the cafeteria on East Campus, and a Tailgate before the Duke-Kansas football game on Saturday. All student graduation ceremony on Sunday morning.
Clearly a streamlined weekend (lacking Baccalaureate, department events, etc..) but offering several opportunities for events offering casual & unplanned meetings with their classmates who were dispersed without warning. Remember that during spring break of their senior year they received notice not to return to campus.
Today, 9 days prior to those Friday events graduates received an email stating that all of those events have been cancelled. Graduation is still on for Sunday at 9:00 am in Abele Quad but the university is no longer providing any group gathering for 2020 graduates. The only "group" event on the schedule is the Duke-Kansas football game and they are offering concessions vouchers since the tailgate has been cancelled. In my mind, wandering Wallace Wade searching for other 2020 grads is not a graduation event.
They are left to plan their own weekend. Duke could at least provided a list of classmates who have registered so that attendees would have a chance to reach out beforehand and try to arrange some time/place to connect over the weekend. So far nothing of the kind has been provided or even alluded to.
Clearly the Delta variant is a major curveball, but Duke had over a year to plan prior to the late May "save the date" announcement and another six weeks before the event schedule release in mid July.
If you mandate that everyone attending must be vaccinated shouldn't there be a way to find venues on/around campus that can accommodate an outdoor welcome reception and tailgate allowing for adequate social distancing?
If you pick a weekend without a home football game then you have Wallace Wade available all weekend as a location. Even if ALL 2020 graduates returned with 3 guests(a number they could limit) that is what 24,000 to 40,000 people? Nowhere near that many people would actually attend. I do not have any data on planned attendance because Duke hasn't shared any registration numbers with graduates.
End of rant. I am very disappointed that my alma mater has managed this so poorly.
- Ranidad