Convocation Ceremony Research Articles

COVID-19 Prevention Protocol for an Organised Mass Gathering-An Essential Requisite in Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Phase

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has stirred up chaos in the whole world. After prolonged lockdowns, finally, society is opening again for business and day-to-day life. Mass gatherings are undoubtedly again expected to start, but carry additional risks for transmission of the virus. We designed a concept model that was validated in about 1000 people gathering in a convocation ceremony at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. A protocol was made, a risk assessment was done, and attendees followed-up. The emphasis on thermal screening, hand hygiene, physical distancing, open-air ventilation, refusing attendees having Influenza-Like Illnesses (ILI), and other preventive measures were the means to contain the potential transmission in an organised mass gathering of this magnitude. The dictum “prevention is better than cure” held amidst this outbreak. As a result of this well-structured mass gathering, the event was quite successfully conducted. Further event planning in the COVID-19 scenario or other outbreaks of similar infections must be managed in this way for the prevention of spread.

Integrating First-Year Convocation into the Orientation Experience: Innovative Strategies to Enhance the Experience

First-Year Convocation ceremonies, also known as induction ceremonies, are often held by colleges and universities to welcome the incoming class of first-year students. The traditional model for Convocation is typically a formal ceremony that mimics commencement. After years of Convocation ceremonies that followed this traditional model, the authors’ institution successfully incorporated innovative strategies to enhance their Convocation ceremony by collaborating with campus partners, integrating engaging and interactive elements as part of or surrounding the event, and adopting a data-informed approach to modifying the ceremony in order to enhance the experience for attendees.

Building an institutional repository: the case of University of Ilorin, Library, Nigeria

Purpose An institutional repository has become a new way of making the intellectual outputs of academic and research institutions electronically accessible in the online public domain. The outcome has led to users gaining remote access to varieties of digitized information that is hitherto locally resident before digitization in hardcopy form in the various information centre and libraries without users’ restrictions. This initiative has helped to enhance the open access inventiveness. Nigeria libraries are therefore taking up the challenge of computerizing their libraries and some have taken some steps to source the requisite funds to digitize and archive their library resources for easier Web-based access. Consequent upon this development, the University of Ilorin, embarked on digitization of its local contents such as Convocation Ceremonies; Government Publications; and Staff Publications and Theses and Dissertations, and making these local resources available online. This paper attempts to give a detailed account, step-by-step procedures and the various challenges faced in the process of building its online institutional repository and the way forward. The report in this paper gives insight into academic libraries intention to digitize their library resources, on the best way to go about it and also to avoid unnecessary hurdles. Design/methodology/approach To provide a thorough breakdown of the building of institutional repositories in the University of Ilorin, Library, webliography sources were consulted. Findings Some areas in service provisions need to improve upon, and these areas are search engine optimization by subscribing to handle.net, integration of Google analytics to check performance, sitemap features and highly secured (SSL and public key encryption. Originality/value This paper attempts to give a detailed account, step-by-step procedures and the various challenges faced in the process of building its online institutional repository and the way forward. The report in this paper gives insight into academic libraries intention to digitize their library resources, on the best way to go about it and also to avoid unnecessary hurdles.

IIT Bombay has Chosen Khadi Angavastrams, a Hindu Traditional White Piece of Cloth or Stole, for the Convocation Ceremony

The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay has chosen khadi angavastrams, a Hindu traditional white piece of cloth or stole, for the convocation ceremony of its graduating batch.

Non-verbal Communication Approach to Inculcating Moral Values in Tertiary Institutions

Having observed that lack of moral values is one of the major causes leading to break down of laws and order and in spite of preaching, sermonizing and talking that seem to yield no positive change; there ought to be something non-verbally that can be done without even uttering a word. Every society is faced with one problem or the other. However, the so-called societal problems, upon careful and final analysis, dissolve in moral problems. The social, economic, religious, political, cultural, technological and educational problems facing nations all over the world are essentially moral in nature and character. The mere rhetoric of been found worthy in character and learning read at universities convocation ceremonies is a far cry from what is actually obtainable. Ultimately suggestion of a network of paralinguistic phenomena that have potentials of enhancing and advancing the moral values of university students are highlighted. It is recommended that para-linguistic theory and practice of non-verbal communication be vigorously applied by lecturers who would be adequately balanced so that students would achieve a combined academic and moral educational worth that will benefit humanity.

Convocation Address 2015

It is my honor and pleasure to be given this opportunity to deliver the Convocation Address at the 27th General Convocation ceremony 2015 of the Open University of Sri Lanka. I have structured my talk around the potential of distance education and its relevance to the current job market. I will rely heavily on my experience with the Virtual University of Pakistan, but the thrust of my discourse should be applicable to the broader distance learning arena. Distance education, as you all know, is not a new phenomenon. Over the years, the specific delivery methods and pedagogy have evolved and changed but the basic premise has remained the same: the provision of learning opportunities for knowledge seekers who faced one or more impediments in accessing formal education at conventional campuses. This issue of access to learning is assuming a much higher degree of importance in the current era, the primary reason being the changing face of the job market.

Reading and Righting the Names at a Convocation Ceremony: Influences of Linguistic Ideologies on Name Usage in an Institutional Interaction

AbstractAt a Canadian university with a diverse population, orators at convocation ceremonies follow a protocol to facilitate the correct pronunciation of names. I describe the protocol and analyze one name-announcement segment, incorporating data from interviews with faculty and students. I argue that linguistic ideologies influence and reflect the way names are used in institutional interactions. In an institutional discourse of multiculturalism, names are seen as symbols of persons, and efforts to say names correctly are demonstrations of respect. This can be undermined by orators’ practices, which focus on names as words and mark some non-English names as “difficult,” such as repeated verification and halting pronunciation. For students with these names, this may contribute to negative feelings about being treated as outsiders in the dominant society. Attention to linguistic ideologies reveals that the university’s protocol is as much a mechanism for reducing uncertainty among orators as for treating students respectfully.

University of Hawaii at Mãnoa John A. Burns School of Medicine

University of Hawaii at Mãnoa John A. Burns School of Medicine

Addressing Youth Unemployment, Underemployment and Poverty in Nigeria: The Role of Technical and Vocational Education in National Development

While addressing the recent convocation ceremony of Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, the Minister of Education, Sam Egwu, assured the millions of unemployed and poor youth lacking employability skills that technical education would enjoy more government support in 2010 because of the role of technology in national development. Such a pronouncement is not new in Nigeria. Previous administrations have raised the people’s hope by painting glowing pictures of their development plans and defined the linkages between technological capability and national development. They also swore that youth empowerment would become the government’s top priority yet successive administrations have refused to properly fund education and failed to prepare the youth for the world of work and to create employment for the millions of graduates churn out by the educational institutions yearly. This paper calls for the leaders to move away from rhetoric to action and tackle the challenges facing education, particularly technological development and create employment for the horde of unemployed youth. Without addressing the challenges facing technical and vocational education the youth will continue to face soaring unemployment, underemployment and poverty and the nation will remain underdeveloped.

The Commercialisation Of Knowledge Production Among Students Of The University Of Port Harcourt, Nigeria :the Praxis And Provisos.

In recent time, there had been an urgent need for the understanding of and a planned framework for theintroduction of the commercialization of knowledge production concept in our universities. Manydimensions to this need had been attempted. This include drawing up new course descriptions orrevising the mix of the course subject portfolio. However, it is now becomes very obvious that suchdevelopment requires a good deal more than just looking into specific course contents, or setting up anentrepreneurial centre and or introducing a course in entrepreneurial education as announced byBaridam (2009) during the 25th Convocation Ceremony of the University of Port Harcourt.

Guru Clown, or Pedagogy of the Carnivalesque

In 1998, Lee Breuer, theatre director and founder of New York-based Mabou Mines, was awarded an honorary degree from California Institute of the Arts, where I had been employed as full time faculty for eight years. His speech was a resounding warning to the 313 graduates at convocation ceremonies--BFAs and MFAs from the Schools of Dance, Film/Video, Theatre, Writing, Music, and Art--to retain their artistic playfulness and refuse to compromise vision or voice when hazarding the marketplace. He concluded his address with his own playful take on Descartes: "I am entertained," he declared, "therefore I am! I entertain," he continued, "therefore you are!" As the crowd cheered and the business of a rollicking CalArts graduation proceeded, I found myself distracted. Breuer's evocation of entertainment suddenly had provided me with a sorely needed paradigm for understanding what had been a difficult, albeit amusing,experience in a class I had just finished teaching. This paper is a performative attempt to share my experience in that classroom. It is subjective, mischievous, and self-conscious; it is a re-creation that privileges, or at least allows the distortions, fears, and humor that pervade the pedagogical encounter, whether we attend to them or not.

The Juilliard School

It will be fifty years tomorrow since the convocation ceremonies for a new Institute of Musical Art were held in a building at Fifth Avenue and Twelfth Street. The speakers that day were Cornelius C. Cuyler, Frank Damrosch, Felix Adler and Woodrow Wilson, president of Princeton.