After an eventful few days, I can now officially put letters behind my name. (Is that how you do it?) It seems the admin mishaps of Monday were only the beginning. I have since had the privilege of being the subject of one of the biggest stuff-ups a university can make – I was awarded the wrong degree last night.
While collecting my transcripts this morning, I was informed upon enquiry that the Bachelor of Arts certificate I was presented with in full regalia, is actually a completely different degree from the Bachelor of Arts (Media & Communications). I didn’t exactly think it was the end of the world, but the horrified faces of the Student Administration department only served to accentuate the severity of this mistake. But it was not without its merits. Instead of being placed number 69 in the order to receive my degree, I was placed fourth in the Bachelor queue, after the two dozen or so PhDs and Masters graduands, and before half the hall could fall asleep.
Fortunately for everyone involved, my ceremony lasted a grand total of 60 minutes, largely due to the fact that faculties such as Arts, Law, Education, Food Science and well, Arts (Media & Communications) were largely composed of local students, who only graduate in April 2005. You have no idea how happy I was. I’d resigned myself to sitting there for two hours, and suddenly I’m freed an hour early. Not that it mattered to my brother (who fell asleep twice), and the unidentified academic on the stage (who fell asleep during the Associate Professor’s address).
I am however, dumbfounded that they pronounced my name wrongly when presenting me with my certificate. I thought they could and would pronounce every name exactly right. I mean, you can pronounce Supaporn Sornampon, Dusida Pipatanasern and Thararut Chittichanon but you can’t pronounce Sophia? Even Yuchun Ngian was pronounced correctly during his graduation. And to think just before the ceremony, David was telling me how these people amazingly somehow manage to get every name.
No biggie, all that matters as far as I’m concerned is I’ve donned that gown with the lovely blue hood, taken a dozen pictures, and got on and off that stage without tripping. And I remembered to bow when I should have (one PhD student from Hong Kong forgot and the presenter looked distinctly displeased).
Thanks all of you who came by. Really appreciate the detour. And thanks y’all who couldn’t make it but sent SMSes instead. Will put up pictures when I get home. My parents got me the little graduation bear. I love it and have christened it Humphrey Bartholomew Rupert Charles. Just because I will never name a person that. And my brother can’t pronounce Bartholomew.
Needless to say, my parents are over the moon. There’s something about that gown that makes every parent extra happy for the preceding and proceding several days. I have numerous spontaneous shots of myself in the gown, taken by my dad who was wonderfully enthusiastic, both over my graduation, and his new digital camera. The graduation ceremony, like the wedding dinner, is not so much for us graduands, as much as it is for our parents and loved ones.
Today, after running to and fro between Student Administration and the Arts Faculty, because some paperwork had been inadvertently held up and it was just faster for me to get it and deliver it in person, I have my academic transcripts. My days in Melbourne University are officially over. Well, there is some alumni thingy, but yea, like I said, me and Melbourne University… officially over.
Even though I know nothing about the real working world, I’ve been assured by the Arts faculty International Advisors that incompetent admin is very much a part of it. As they joked while getting me the required paperwork for my transcript today, “This (bureaucracy and endless waiting) is part of our training for what the working world will be like, so we send you into the real world equipped.”
They were just a few of the lovely people I am so going to miss.
