Graduation

Date published: May 26, 2001

Okay, so I graduated. Do I feel any different? Nope. I mean, yes it was an accomplishment, I'm not denying that by any means. Over the last couple weeks, I've seen a bunch of people from my first years at RIT. One of these pleasant surprises was a conversation I had with Terence Chung, who I hadn't seen since my freshman year, he was friends with one of the two roommates I had at that point, Andrew Chow. It's been cool to see them and just chat with them a bit.

There was one thing that really surprised me about graduation. It was really unorganized. I'm not talking about the actual speech ceremony, but the stuff that happened before that. We were all supposed to meet in the RIT Student Life Center gym about 2 hours before the ceremony started. Here we would get lined up and just make sure everything was set. Doesn't sound too difficult does it?

What follows is basically an explanation of how this whole pre-graduation thing was horribly executed.

It starts off, after we're all in the gym, and this guy says "All of you Bachelor's and Master's of Information Technology graduates, get in 2 lines." So everyone just got in 2 lines. I happened to be right near the front of one of the lines, and I looked back and realized that the guy actually wanted Bachelor's in one line and Master's in the other...but that isn't how people lined up. I said to the guy "Wait, you need to clarify that because people are confused...one line for bachelor's and one line for Masters, right? Because that's not what everyone just did." I could tell because the Master's graduates had this extra colored thing they were wearing around their neck. The guy clarifies to everyone, and then the two lines separate, and then eventually end up with one line of Bachelor's and one line of Master's.

Okay, okay, I'm not done the story yet. At least everything seems going good so far. Next, the guy says "Okay, everybody get in alphabetical order now." I'm like, "What the fuck! Why the hell did we all line up if now we all have to move around again!" Sound unorganized yet? So everyone starts asked what letter everyone else's last name starts with. Then the guy chimes in again, "You all need to get one of these cards too, there is one for each of you, it's got your name on it."

Right, so as you can tell now that there was no point in getting in our lines at all. At this point everyone just walks toward this guy who is holding a pile of cards in his hand...I think "Oh my god, this is going to take FOREVER!" He reads off a name, a couple times, and hands the card to the owner. He reads out the next name a couple times, no one by that name is around. He moves to the next card. Finally, Sharon Getschmann, one of the best IT professors, grabbed a bunch of the cards an walked over to another section of the gym to try to alleviate the fact that there were so many people around one person. She started calling out names, like the other person was.

I noticed that there was a bunch of students that weren't around either person handing out cards and wondered what they were doing. Upon further inspection, I realize that all these people are deaf. I next look around for an interpreter. There wasn't one! So basically all these deaf students have no clue what is going on! I mean, I guess because so many different majors were graduating in different building around RIT, that there was a shortage of interpretors, but I mean, someone should have figured this out and tried planning for it.

Anyway, I walked over to the deaf graduates, and used sign language to explain to what seemed to be the tallest of them what was happening and what they were supposed to be doing. I first noticed the tall guy looking at me, so I just chose him to talk to so that he could them tell everyone else. I was amazed how grateful he was. Later after I had got my diploma and returned to my seat, he came walking by with his diploma and shook my hand and thanked me for helping. It's good to be appreciated.

So now after about 10 minutes, some people had got their cards and started lining up by last name. Of course, not everyone had got their card yet, but at least we were making progress. So I'm in line now, and just like 2 people behind me is BJ McManus. I've known him since my freshman year at RIT. He points out that there are numbers on the cards as well as our names being on them, and that we should just get in line by these numbers, because it works out that whichever we line up by (last name or number) we'll be in line alphabetically by last name.

The supposed line had actually turn into and what looked like a pregnant worm at this point. The line was single file at the beginning and the end, but in the middle it was just a conglomeration of people. I also noticed that the guy that was directly in front of me had a number that was 30 lower...so even though I was pressed up against him, we had to fit 29 people between us. The whole time people had been asking the back to move back more, and they would, but only about 10 feet more...and we needed a lot more space. No one "in charge" seemed to be trying to fix the problem, so I finally went back to the end of line and explained to the people there what the situations was. "You've gotta move WAY back." I walked all the way up the line telling everyone to spread out backwards. The whole time I'm doing this I'm thinking "I can't believe I learned from these people in charge, and they can't even get this thing organized!" Not the sort of thing one should be thinking upon graduation :)

Anyway, that's just about all there is to say about the little getting ready insident. We then walked to a huge tent that was set up. On the way there I passed, Mike Saffran, he's a guy I work with at RIT. He didn't see me.

Oh yeah, two more things...first, why is it that so many people think it is funny to say "graduated" incorrectly? I've heard a couple graduates or their families say "Well I guess you're all gradumatated now." or "I'm gradu-ma-tating!" Maybe I'm just a bitter person who overanalyzes things at times, but what goes through my head is, "The word is graduating! You're not funny by playing with the fact that you're graduating but you can't pronounce it (and thus shouldn't be graduating). We all know that you actually know how to say it. It's not like you just made that up, it's nothing new." Of course, I never verbalized that thought.

The second thing I wanted to mention is that all the lining up work was sort of done for nothing. The point of the card was so that when we walked across the stage, we handed the announcer our card, and they read our name as we crossed...at the same time our name was placed in real time up on the big TV screen that was set up. There were huge chunks of people who were out of order! The TV always displayed the correct name of who walked by, and the right name was said as well, but people were out or order! It was sort of funny...yeah, that's right RIT, you're giving diplomas to people who can't even get in line alphabetically.