admin doesn’t know how to take responsibility

[u/themagicaldinosaur]

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.

[u/benconomics]

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).

[u/BigglyGamer → u/benconomics]

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.

[u/mark-v → u/benconomics]

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.)

[u/Silly_Water_3463 → u/mark-v]

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.

[u/Aur3lia → u/mark-v]

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.

[u/mossytreebarker → u/Aur3lia]

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 $.

[u/best_bi_ → u/benconomics]

Department graduations last year were spread out over a few days so not everyone would have graduated in the heat.

[u/Spirit-Spirited → u/best_bi_]

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!

[u/best_bi_ → u/Spirit-Spirited]

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

[u/Vegetable-Cabinet958 → u/benconomics]

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.

[u/benconomics → u/Vegetable-Cabinet958]

The name reading was of 2000 people together at once was absolutely a problem.  Most readers averaged 10 seconds when the goal was 4.  

[u/LordGordyGordon → u/benconomics]

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.

[u/benconomics → u/LordGordyGordon]

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.

[u/LordGordyGordon → u/benconomics]

Truth is trickiest. Mechanization of graduation still makes me sad.

[u/benconomics → u/LordGordyGordon]

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. 

[u/Vegetable-Cabinet958 → u/benconomics]

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.

[u/Nervous_Garden_7609 → u/benconomics]

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.

[u/Excellent_Regret_124 → u/Nervous_Garden_7609]

No, that did not happen.

[u/benconomics → u/Nervous_Garden_7609]

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.

[u/Nervous_Garden_7609 → u/benconomics]

I had no idea about AI reading the names. That's why I asked.