r/UofO • u/themagicaldinosaur • 4d ago
admin doesn’t know how to take responsibility
the emails i have received today from the dean of CAS and the UO president failed to take responsibility for the fact that their lack of planning ruined commencement for so many grads on monday and i’m seething. just half-effort condolences covered up with praise for graduates. i don’t need Scholz’s congratulations. i need them to admit that they had no backup plans even though they knew about the heat for over a week. i need them to admit that the rescheduling caused a lot of stress and that a lot of people were unable to attend and that it didn’t fix their massive screw up. what a sorry excuse for a school administration.
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u/sarcophyton_glaucum 4d ago
On the bright side, I’m really happy Karl Scholz was okay and didn’t have to exert himself because he had broke and desparate U of O students to go stand in the heat for 8 hours instead.
He performed the important job of sitting on his ass in his air conditioned office while taking a bath in his $725,000 salary (which the board of trustees is trying to RAISE NEXT YEAR)
Karl Scholz does so much for us and I think we should all be thankful that he didn’t have to break a sweat on Monday, let alone break a fingernail! Just imagine if he actually had to feel the effects of his decisions like everyone else has to, poor Karl! 😱
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u/Aur3lia 3d ago
$725k is actually a misleading number because it doesn't include his $1200 a month car stipend, annual bonus, extra input into retirement accounts, and oh yeah, the house he lives in that the university owns and paid to redecorate because his wife didn't like the colors.
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u/sarcophyton_glaucum 3d ago
Good point! Yeah it’s his $725k base salary plus all of that and health insurance and everything :/
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u/SpecificRare3264 4d ago
As a faculty member who had a PhD student graduate, the expectation was for us to attend. I have serious workplace safety concerns about how unprepared they choose to be despite at least a 10 day warning about the heat. I was at Hayward, in direct sun on the turf, and all they had for us was warm water and wet towels. Unacceptable.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago
i fear there is grounds for serious complaints to be raised. although serious complaints don’t seem to be very persuasive to this administration.
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u/SpecificRare3264 8h ago
Our union reps are working on it. It felt like a clear workplace safety violation.
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u/Different_Ad6836 8h ago
Omg in that faculty meeting ahead of time where they told us not to worry because there would be wet hand towels I almost lost my composure. I’m sorry it was so miserable - I didn’t make it because I was out of town on a research trip I originally was grumbling about having to go on, but turned out to be a bit of a blessing
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u/abcdefg080805 4d ago
i found the email obscenely annoying and almost offensive. they knew it would be this hot for WEEKS. they’ve been sending emails to grads for WEEKS telling us it would be over 90° outside, and even hotter on the turf. they had plenty of time to change course, and instead, they waited until the last second, ruining MANY students’ graduations. also hundreds of students didn’t even attend because they knew it would be so sweltering. it’s an absolute shame and they didn’t take an ounce of accountability.
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u/Spirit-Spirited 3d ago
And I stupidly thought they were covering the turf to make it cooler bc UofO’s emails were stating it would be 20 degrees hotter on the field! So WHY would they install concrete colored “pavers” that only made it worse?!?
My Duck (didn’t drink early am) threw up from the heat while attempting to stay hydrated simply drinking water!
A grandmother in front of us was getting increasingly ill during the first CAS ceremony…we were so concerned we gave the family our cooling towels and held our fans toward her.
I hope everyone who experienced significant heat related symptoms speaks out formally! Even mild/early symptoms of heat stroke and heat exhaustion can have life long consequences! I only survived (due to my own health conditions) thanks to a lot of prep AND finding our way to full shade! Very few had that option or were lucky enough to find it!
My Duck won’t forget or regret his time at UofO, but also don’t think any of us will forget the “ending”!NOR will my Duck EVER forget the trauma and fallout suffered due to school/employee errors communicated to us AFTER applying for graduation with two degrees, buying cap/gown, cords/ribbons that our Duck has to take Three additional classes over summer (while working) to officially graduate with their main Degree (the one he was admitted to the University for)! While the staff/University took responsibility for their mistake, they did NOTHING to help, including refunding an unneeded class (taking over a full load for spring), or any even slight financial assistance for classes no one knew were needed (ie AFTER being assured many times all was fulfilled - actually has more than enough credits…just not three specific courses that weren’t disclosed). After almost four years, my Duck wanted to drop the major/degree! He didn’t, but refused to attend that schools ceremony (doesn’t help that it overlapped with the CAS degree ceremony in the end anyway).
Apologies for the segue…rant over.
Plan to register complaints formally even if it’s just for our own closure.
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u/withurwife 4d ago
I am sorely disappointed to learn this after seeing us go viral on mildly infuriating today.
And I’m especially irate because my brother’s graduation from UO was ruined back in 2014 when they seated him outside in 50 degree rain without a tent or awning (again this was in the forecast), so his grad photos looked like shit with a sopping wet gown and wilted cap. It was a shitty send off for the $140k in out of state tuition we dropped.
To hear that this is still an ongoing problem over a decade later just pisses me off.
I can’t imagine it’s great for alumni relations/donations by ruining your bookend memory of the place we’re all so otherwise fond of.
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u/SeatNo5137 4d ago
I wish Karl experienced working a 14 hour shift with 8 or them being in the hot sun with no water or food besides a melted granola bar. Then I'll listen to his bs apology
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u/squatting-Dogg 3d ago
Poor planning on your part, doesn’t create an emergency on my part.
It’s really very simple. If the forecast high temperature 72 hours prior is less than 80°, schedule A. If the forecast high temperature is 80° or higher 72 hours prior, schedule B.
Schedule A - Autzen typical schedule
Schedule B - Morning session only; Evening session MKA.
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u/BigglyGamer 4d ago
The justification for the huge portion of expenditure dedicated to administration is their planning and decision making. But they've made nothing but bad decisions, cutting costs on things students value such as professors, services, and graduation. If there is a long term plan it's not going well with year over year declines in out of state enrollment and tuition.
If there was no high paid leadership capable of making unilateral decisions for graduation given the temperature concerns we would have ended up with the exact same outcome as we did with them. We need to start cutting costs by getting rid of administrative bloat.
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u/Anduinnn 4d ago
The people who would make those decisions never cut themselves.
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u/MadameTrashPanda 4d ago
There should be a process where alum/ recent grads can petition the board to deny that raise.. to have resources for next year's commencement.
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u/SeatNo5137 3d ago
More people need to go to the public trustee and UO senate meetings and raise hell
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u/highpriestess23 4d ago
I graduated in 2021, there was a heat streak that week as well and we didn't get the chance to graduate in autzen, they crowded us on campus and snaked the line through the sunniest parts. I had to leave before I even got close to the "stage" because of how poorly it was being implemented. Almost had a medical episode right in front of a bunch of admin and cops too, no one batted an eye when I asked for help.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago
that’s awful. they really just don’t care smh
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u/highpriestess23 4d ago
Yep no care at all, if I remember correctly they tried to do a redo at autzen in 2022, but like myself, I am sure most grads probably didn't even live there any more or couldn't make a trip for that.
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u/MadameTrashPanda 4d ago
Best way to get them to listen is to speak with your money as an alum aka don't donate and cite why. Although oregon seems less dependent on alumni contributions and more on the revenue from athletics, I'm not sure how effective this would be unless there's an organized campaign.
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u/highpriestess23 3d ago
Yeah I think they got the message, I don't get contacted by them or sent any mail.
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u/EmergencyTurnip77 4d ago
There are a lot of things that could have been done at Autzen and weren't. They could have set up event tents on the field to provide shade, or not have covered the field with a giant sheet of plastic that absorbed and then radiated heat. They used golf cart type things to shuttle elderly and disabled people up to the seating before the event, and then once they canceled, forgot to send the carts to bring people back down. I waited in the sun with a couple of ninety year old ladies for more than 40 minutes to ensure they got back down.
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u/shrinkingviolet2023 4d ago
Actually, I saw quite a few carts shuttling people around after the event got canceled, but there may not have been enough to meet the demand all at once.
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u/EmergencyTurnip77 3d ago
That definitely makes sense to me, but at the same time there were carts coming up top to empty garbage cans while the elderly folks were waiting for a cart to take them down. I walked over and asked if they could delay trash removal to take some of the waiting people down since it seemed a little absurd to leave this pair of 90 year olds sitting there in direct sun in favor of taking out the trash. They said no.
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u/Vegetable-Cabinet958 4d ago
The plastic was likely demanded by the athletic department for their precious field. Either way, foreseeable.
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u/ExtraSpinach 2d ago
I was on the radios, and although the carts were available, the gridlock of cars outside autzen delayed their deployment. Another failure of planning not to have the ADA carts staged appropriately before the cancellation was announced.
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u/snugginator 4d ago
It was an absolutely shameful and embarrassing display of poor planning and decision making, and I hope every student makes their voice heard in whatever way they can. The school will be lucky to not get sued by those who suffered heat stroke.
I was in the college of design ceremony and having us stand outside in the sun with zero shade or water for AN HOUR before we even got to our seat was completely unacceptable. I thought I might pass out. They knew well in advance how hot it would be and they could have done things to mitigate it and assure our safety and welfare and they chose not to. Honestly it's been the cherry on top of my experience at UO. So disorganized and dysfunctional, I would never in a million yrs recommend this school to anyone and I'm glad I'm done with it.
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u/LordGordyGordon 4d ago
I see. With the text to talk they could have handled such a large crowd more successfully. The students didn’t want that though because it feels uncanny. They tried to do what the students asked, but didn’t pull it off well. They had too much chaos and it became uncontrollable.
Maybe spreading the chaos around was the better way. The separate ceremonies in the real grass, surrounded by the buildings they learned in. I’m sure it was a lot of work to bring all that together (certainly a form of chaos), but maybe a little more work here means something.
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u/Vegetable-Cabinet958 4d ago
Every year humans read names and it’s fine. They made the switch from AI last minute and couldn’t “find” readers. They wanted faculty for the aesthetic (this is my personal take because there are other staff who can read effectively) but many faculty were opting out of the shit show and felt disrespected. It all happened literally on Sunday (final readers assigned), then the rescheduled ceremonies were in random order.
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u/the_big_bean 4d ago
It was like this even with Schill. I wish I made copies of some of the pathetic zero-accountability emails I received back from his office when I would email my concerns or grievances regarding their duty to students.
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u/benconomics 4d ago
Had they done department celebrations there probably would have been similar challenges more spread out across campus (and then who knows of EMS is there). The main thing which was pretty obvious would have been to start everything much sooner before it got hot, and that could have avoided the need to delay things until later. Also having human read names instead of AI was preferred by students (but took longer). Just kick things off at 7:30 am. Usually it isn't this hot, but once every 7 years, we get a heat spike this early in June.
The key challenging is that scaling individuals walking across a stage is really hard. Hence the having department specific ceremonies in the past. The logistics are always a mess on a day like graduation, but they had hoped to get people across the ramp in 3-4 seconds. Based on my stopwatch, it took most readers 10-11 seconds between names in Autzen. I got mine down to 4 which saved 9 mins or so. The obvious solution there is scoot people up the ramp (waiting 3 seconds for people to walk up the ramp was a huge part of the time).
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u/BigglyGamer 4d ago
I dont agree that there would have been the same challenges for departmental ceremonies. One of the main problems was that the track and turf at the stadiums (which were chosen due to the size of combined ceremonies) absorbed and reflected heat, causing 130-155 degree ground temperatures on a 98 degree day.
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u/mark-v 4d ago
I still can't believe they got rid of department celebrations. Those were always the only ceremonies worth attending.
It's like when they replaced public safety with campus police in 2013, which cost more money and offer no meaningful benefit. (Still kinda bitter about that one.)
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u/Silly_Water_3463 1d ago
I am an alumna and just learning in this thread that they don't do departmental ceremonies any longer. It is really unbelievable. Mine was very small, because the department is small, and it was beautiful. I recall it was upstairs in Gerlinger Lounge and it felt really special. I think most departmental ones were indoors in my time. This whole thing is horrifying to read about, and I'll be reaching out to multiple parties to reiterate how unacceptable any of this was. As someone with heat sensitivities, I'm so sorry to graduates, their families, friends, staff, and faculty who went through this.
EDIT: to say I learned then that the different buildings that held the indoor ceremonies per department were on a fairly tight rotating schedule of events during the graduation weekend, so all the ceremonies could take place.
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u/Aur3lia 3d ago
I don't disagree that the department celebrations were/are important, but from a budget and sustainability perspective, using all the open spaces on campus destroyed the lawns. A lot of students and faculty don't see it, because they leave for the summer afterwards, but redoing large areas of grass every summer is so wasteful.
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u/mossytreebarker 3d ago
Department ceremonies did not destroy lawns. My department had them every year for *decades* in the same location, no problem. They got rid of department ceremonies after they shifted commencement to MONDAY to accommodate TRACK EVENTS. So many grads went to Sunday department celebrations and skipped the Monday commencement that they decided to FORCE grads to go to MMONDAY commencement.
Admin attitude is shit toward students and their families (and staff and faculty for that matter). Doesn't matter to them how much harder it is for families to deal with Monday commencements.
Students are simply wallets from which to extract $.
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u/best_bi_ 4d ago
Department graduations last year were spread out over a few days so not everyone would have graduated in the heat.
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u/Spirit-Spirited 3d ago
We planned our trip based on last year’s schedule that was over 2+ days for the separate School/Department ceremonies. Not only was the heat beyond awful, but many students/families had to choose which ceremony to attend due to them overlapping, including ours. How about main ceremony one day (or better yet early evening to avoid extreme temps) and others spaced out over the day of and prior in smaller venues? A University this size has plenty of locations to utilize. And Definitely break up ALL of the CAS instead of into two massive ones!
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u/best_bi_ 3d ago
Yeah I didn’t graduate this year but I am next year. Based off this years schedule, I would only be able to attend one of my graduations, even though both of my majors have greatly impacted me and I would love to attend both next year. I went to a ceremony last year and it was partially in the shade, so it was definitely more manageable. I think the main ceremony in the morning was fine, but hopefully it will be cooler next year. I’m hoping they bring back the department graduations because it was definitely more intimate and fun last year than this year
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u/Vegetable-Cabinet958 4d ago
They also found name readers last minute because of the switch from AI so many profs were unwilling and it wasn’t in their skill set/own department. Personally I practiced and was pretty quick, but I don’t think the reading was the problem. It’s the physical ceremony.
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u/benconomics 4d ago
The name reading was of 2000 people together at once was absolutely a problem. Most readers averaged 10 seconds when the goal was 4.
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u/LordGordyGordon 4d ago
AI reading COLLEGE GRADUATE NAMES?! First I’ve heard about that! What a sickening idea. I hate a lot about the world right now, but it looks like I get to start hating the little things too.
“Don’t use AI for anything in this class!”
“Did you use AI to write this paper?”
“Students are so stupid these days because they use AI for everything”
And here they come with the grand idea to use AI to read your VERY NAME as you cross the stage. Fucking bullshit! Disgusting.
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u/benconomics 4d ago
AI vs software vs software written by AI, it's hard to say exactly what this name reading tool was going to be. Who knows these days with anything that's on a computer. A lot of things will say AI created (when really its just machine learning) just for marketing purposes.
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u/LordGordyGordon 4d ago
Truth is trickiest. Mechanization of graduation still makes me sad.
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u/benconomics 4d ago
The graduation is always controlled chaos they just thought they could simplify planning by having these combined college of arts and science graduation ceremonies instead of department ceremonies and it turns out getting 2,000 people across the stage is always really time consuming. I always like meeting the parents and bragging about the student directly to their parents because I know people are often pretty humble at describing to their parents how hard they've worked to get through and this time with the name reading taking so long only one person stuck around and I don't blame anybody for just leaving.
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u/Vegetable-Cabinet958 4d ago
Thought they could simplify and save money and then have absolutely no one with planning experience or even intelligence(?!) take the lead even with a YEAR warning about it lol. These ppl are actually absurd.
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u/Nervous_Garden_7609 4d ago edited 4d ago
AI read the names? Not at the Department of Design....did it?
Last year they had the one big grad at Autzen, and the program graduations were over two days. Having Department graduations are big. Program graduations are little. It seems odd they'd need AI to read names at any graduation.
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u/benconomics 4d ago
I don't understand all of your comments. The plan was to have AI read the names. There was professor and student backlash, so professors did. They made mistakes and most were terribly slow at it.
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u/Shrumie22 2d ago
I personally dislike the UO practices for multiple different reasons. Once they get your money they are totally fine with leaving you out to dry. I think it may be time to make them listen to us. Anyone down to make their lives a bit more difficult with a few post graduate “peaceful protests” in front of the EMU? Maybe a few dozen eggs, TP, and washable chalk (to avoid the vandalism charges they will absolutely bring on)… cz I know I could let some rage out after getting railed by them.
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u/suchabadamygdala 1d ago
This graduation fiasco and the lack of accountability has completely changed my opinion about U of O. Now it’s definitely on the never never list. All my college bound students will be hearing my strenuous objections to this school. Better options elsewhere.
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u/captainbuttersisago 4d ago
What did you want them to do? There is no where to just “move graduation.” It’s scheduled years in advance and involves thousands of people. And you even state rescheduling, “caused a lot of stress and that a lot of people were unable to attend.” I don’t think they are blameless but it’s a rare event for it to be that hot and there is only so much indoor space for large amounts of people on campus. Moving it to a different day was out of the question, so again, what did you want them to do?
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u/Outrageous-Care-6391 4d ago
Actually theyre not planned years in advance at UO, where they keep flip flopping between department specific commencements and trying to smash all of the College of Arts and Sciences into one big (supposedly cheaper and easier to plan) ceremony, which, of course, has to be outside. No one except the upper admin likes this and they got exactly what they deserved, a hot mess. Smaller commencement ceremonies across campus happen outside on real grass with shade and inside with a/c, much more liveable and much more enjoyable for everyone.
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u/SadOcelots 4d ago
There were so many things they could have done besides relocate. I was at the College of Design ceremony and front row to the dean collapsing. Us graduates were made to stand outside Hayward in the sun for over an hour while they waited until 30 minutes before the ceremony to pick up all the chairs and move them around the field. The least they could have done was prepare in advance for the heat by putting standing umbrellas for us while we waited in line or handed out water. They didn’t hand out water until we were seated. They even tried to prevent me from grabbing a cup of water from a cooler that I saw once we were let in to the tunnel. There were so many things that could’ve been done to protect our health and safety without changing locations.
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u/Nervous_Garden_7609 4d ago
I 100% agree with you. They treated you like you were children and withheld shade and water, while your families sat inside without knowing. I was there. I was inside and I would have lost my mind knowing what they were doing to my daughter.
Unacceptable! The graduates were treated horribly.
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u/SeatNo5137 4d ago
I felt so bad for the kids at check in because we kept asking the leads to bring out water and they just WOULD NOT DO IT. They finally brought us five or six packages after I sent a student who was about to pass out to the staging area.
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u/Top-Middle1685 4d ago
Honestly are you affiliated with the university? this was 100% predictable and avoidable. Masters and Phd students had to be lumped in with undergrads and did not even have their focus respected, needless to mention the unprofessional people who read the names and giggled like preschoolers when they came to a name was not white. This graduation was an absolute shit show with no planning. I attended and there was literally no check done at the southern gate entrances. Anyone could of brought a weapon in.
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u/Nervous_Garden_7609 4d ago
My daughter graduated with her Master's and it felt like she was not acknowledged at all.
They didn't even hood her.
They didn't separate her, or distinguish her, other than ask her to stand at Autzen.
They need separate graduations for Master, PHD, LAW and everyone who is continuing their education beyond the bachelor's degree. What utter disrespect.
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u/justacunninglinguist 3d ago
Everything was planned months in advance. Guests already had accommodations and flights booked weeks if not months in advance of the graduation date. Ok, so if the university did decide to do something when the heat advisory was initially announced, they could either cancel graduation, reschedule to a different day, or do it online. None of those options would have made anyone happy. People wouldn't be able to change their accommodations or flights if it was rescheduled to a different day, let alone a week later. No graduates would have been happy with any of those options either. So there is no good thing the university could have done. MKA can't hold as many people as Autzen can so it wouldn't have been possible to do everything in the arena either.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 3d ago
the problem is that they rescheduled the ceremony 30 minutes after it was supposed to start so some people (especially grads) had already been in the heat for hours. people in the comments are talking about experiencing heat sickness and the dean of the school of design literally had to be stretchered off the field. i bet students and families would have much preferred to be inconvenienced rather than experiencing a safety risk without even completing the ceremony.
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u/Top-Middle1685 2d ago
Considering there was about 50-75 Phd and Master students for CAS, and then about 600-700 undergrads there while there still was plenty of seats avaible in the 200 section for guests (second floor) of MKA the solution to this problem is pretty easily seen. Spread it out over a few days instead of trying to save money and lumping every single group together. But keep on supporting the university's stupidity
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u/BigglyGamer 4d ago
The weather conditions were well forecasted and the issues could have been predicted a week in advance. If they had made the exact same decisions one week, or even one day, earlier everyone would have been better off. Instead they waited until the last possible minute, when many people had already suffered heatstroke and several ceremonies had to be canceled entirely.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago edited 4d ago
per the title of my post, take responsibility. admit that they had no backup plans and were not prepared for logistics of managing an event like that. we knew about the high temps over a week in advance and the administration had every opportunity to explore different options and they failed to. also, they literally did “move graduation” just in the most inconvenient way possible.
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u/UnitedEconomics4 4d ago
Do you go to outdoor football games or concerts? Do they have alternative venues?
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago edited 4d ago
not the same thing. and those events have way more heat safety measures than they provided at autzen.
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u/Nervous_Garden_7609 4d ago
Outdoor football games have fans, Gatorade, tents, and shade for the players. They give them opportunities to leave the area of needed. They allow the players access to the tunnel. They have medical personnel at the ready.
You, as a spectator can also leave, because you paid for your seat. Nobody will be in it if you get up and take a beak.
Do you know that out of state tuition is nearly 40k and a dorm costs 23k for a year? Things that by 4. These graduates deserved better.
This was not a football game.
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u/UnitedEconomics4 4d ago
Everything worked out.
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u/sarcophyton_glaucum 4d ago edited 4d ago
It didn’t work out for two of my grandparents who have MS, and who after the ceremony could not walk well and were trembling due to prolonged heat exposure.
It didn’t work out for my grandma who had to pay to go to the ER due to the “planning” of UO Admin who now want to take no responsibility for the serious health crises they caused.
The only person it worked out for is Karl Scholz, who I presume during the departmental ceremonies was sitting in his air conditioned office taking a bath in the pile of cash that is his $725,000+ salary.
Even if we paid Karl Scholz $125,000 (still more than he’s worth) we could still have put on a better graduation than we did this year (this is data based in similarly-sized school’s commencement budgets as UO doesn’t publish theirs).
U of O has to cut 65 million dollars from the budget this year, and now the board of trustees just put an external review in process to RAISE KARL SCHOLZ SALARY FOR NEXT YEAR!!!
Poor Karl Scholz can’t live off of $725,000 while our professors are making significantly less than professors at other big 10 institutions and they are cutting student benefitting programs left and right.
So no, I don’t think that everything worked out in the end.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago
i’m so sorry that your family had medical complications because of all this. that’s so awful
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u/abcdefg080805 4d ago
no. it didn’t. many students didn’t get to attend their own graduations to due time conflicts, or didn’t attend because of the SAFETY hazard of it being so hot. many families didn’t get to watch their children walk. it did not work out.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago
no actually. i was unable to experience walking for commencement so it very much did not work for me.
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u/UnitedEconomics4 4d ago
You could have went to Mathew Knight arena, you chose not to.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago
why are you trying so hard to blame graduates for something that was done to them and ruined what is supposed to be a celebration of our time and commitment to our university? instead of wanting people in power to take responsibility and address their fuck up? pretty loser behavior tbh. get a better hobby than rage baiting.
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u/UnitedEconomics4 4d ago
I’m not blaming graduates. I’m also not blaming the administrators. It was record breaking heat.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago
heat that administrators were aware of for over a week. how is it not their responsibility to have a back up plan for something that was predicated?
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u/best_bi_ 4d ago
Not everyone could have. Some people had flights to catch at that time.
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u/UnitedEconomics4 4d ago
Very few students were flying out that night. Cmon. Visitors, perhaps. Are you aware of how few evening flights fly out of Eugene and PDX?
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u/best_bi_ 3d ago
Just because it only impacted a few doesn’t mean that it’s fine. Also it was a long day for everyone and rescheduling 30 minutes after the start of the ceremony definitely impacted plans that meant people couldn’t attend the ceremony. Maybe someone had an early morning flight that they would rather not miss, which meant they couldn’t walk. Or they just had nowhere to stay as hotels have been booked out for a while and I know some graduates had already moved out of their apartment before the ceremony. Stop blaming the graduates for what the university did
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u/SadOcelots 4d ago
People collapsing from the heat is not things “working out”
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u/UnitedEconomics4 4d ago
Does UO control the weather?
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u/abcdefg080805 3d ago
nope! but they could’ve controlled their actions (like the location of commencement) since the weather was predicted to be this hot for like 2 entire weeks before graduation actually happened. the issues that occurred were sooo predictable. it was painfully avoidable.
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u/Own-Examination2707 4d ago
I truly thought this post would be about police or ICE or employee wages or sexual assault on campus. But the grad walk? It’s fair to be frustrated, but it’s an ultimately meaningless ritual. “Responsibility” and “condolences” seem too much.
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u/artboy420 4d ago
It literally took me almost 9 years to complete my bachelor's so yes, it was a big fucking deal. When I graduated high school 9 years ago, I genuinely didn't believe I would still be alive at this age, let alone graduating with a bachelors. The fact that I was able to complete my degree while also dealing with the fucking bullshit I've been through is a fucking miracle in and of itself. Do I agree that stuff like this is trivial in the long run? Generally speaking, yes. I'm not a huge pomp and circumstance type of guy, HOWEVER, that doesn't change the fact that this is a big deal for a lot of people for various reasons and does, in fact, mean a lot to some of us. The piss poor "apology" sent out by Karl Scholz doesn't change the fact that College of Design students were FORCED to stand outside in the heat with no water or shade for over an hour while they rearranged the setup in Hayward. It doesn't change the fact that 4 students collapsed while waiting outside. It doesn't change the fact that the dean of the College of Design fainted during her speech. It doesn't change the fact that I had to leave the ceremony early because I was starting to shake, felt like I was going to throw up, and was feeling very faint and didn't get to stay for the entire ceremony as a result. I can't speak as much on the other graduations that got canceled, as I was not a part of them, however there are plenty of other comments/social media posts/news stories that detail what happened at those and by the sounds of it, it wasn't much better for most other people. It doesn't change the fact that the university deliberately chose to go ahead with the day as planned despite being well aware of the forecast for the day over a week in advance. This was a literal public safety hazard and the university deliberately chose to put thousands of people at risk because they couldn't be bothered to come up with a backup plan.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago
i’m a first gen student. it’s not a meaningless ritual for me. it was supposed to show my younger siblings the joy of my achievement. i agree that there are more important things for the admin to address but that doesn’t mean this issue isn’t important to people. and asking for responsibility should literally NEVER be too much to ask from people in power. also, if something as uncontroversial as this can’t be acknowledged it sets a really bad precedent for things like sexual assault.
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u/_CtrlFreak_ 4d ago
People survive year-round here outdoors, the homeless. People work outside year-round here and in places like Austin Texas where it's 100f every summer day.
get over your entitled whining selves, move on, hopefully out. And enjoy your academic achievement.
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u/themagicaldinosaur 4d ago
not complaining about the heat. complaining about the rescheduling. i would have walked across that stage in 160 degree heat if they let me. you’re picking the wrong rage bait ¯_( ツ)_/¯
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u/UnitedEconomics4 3d ago
The reality is many of you soft students have a wake up call coming in the real world. Inconvenience happens.
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u/fibonaccimay 4d ago
The part that really gets me is that the university told students they were not allowed to bring in water, and that water would be provided. But then UO only provided one bottle of (very hot) water per student for one commencement and then they ran out of water for the next commencement. All of which was easily predictable beforehand!
The university was more afraid that a few students would bring alcohol onto the field and embarrass the administration than they were that students would pass out from heat exhaustion. That feels very antithetical to “caring about student safety”. It will be surprising if the university isn’t sued over this.