Monday, 3rd December 2007
Graduation fever, traditions and rivalry
Hundreds of students are currently celebrating an important time in their life and academic career, graduation.
Having obtained a first degree myself, I understand only too well the excitement and significance that graduation means.
Graduating is essentially the ultimate goal of any student enrolling into a university course. Successfully managing this sets the mark for future opportunities both in the working world and in further studies. It is therefore, no small wonder that every year successful students embark on an entire series of celebrations, revelries and festivities.
The road to academic success is not an effortless one, especially in light of today's increased competition. Achievement depends on a number of factors, the most important of which are the lecturers and the students themselves.
Anyone who has been to university has experienced the frustration of turning up for a cancelled lecture, or discovering a last-minute tutorial no one knew of, or else reading an exam question in your final paper on a topic only ever mentioned in passing.
It's at times like these that we realize the importance of our lecturers' role. Studying alone from notes and books can only take us so far. The lecturers' experience and explanations derived from such experiences can prove to be vital to helping us students grasp a better understanding of the subject as a whole. On the other hand, responsibility to do the necessary work to achieve the desired results rests on us students. At the end of the day however, after the notes have been studied, the questions answered and the nights gone un-slept, the results are in and they're positive! Let the good times roll!
As the start of October and as a new scholastic year drew upon us all, my inbox started to see the steady flow of new emails other than the usual batch relating to fresher parties and activities. The emailing system we had set up amongst ourselves in order to allow our student representative to be able to communicate with us about lectures, exams and the likes, was now being used as a channel for graduation activities and ideas. Organisation of events was taking place before, after and in between lectures. A popular topic of conversation amongst the female population centered on ball gowns and hair appointments. A banner advertising the FEMA graduation ball has been firmly erected above the doors to the Student House for the past couple of weeks serving as a sure reminder of what is to come. Graduation fever has well and truly struck.
Traditionally, graduation events involve a thanksgiving Mass at St. John's Co-Cathedral followed up by an after-party at the students' venue of choice, an official graduation ceremony where the students don their cap and gown and get to take The Photo that will take its proud position on the mantelpiece in the sitting room, and the much awaited bus-cades. Most of us have, at least once, woken up one November morning and on our way into work or university heard the cacophony of horns, whistles and students cheering. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the sound of a number of proud graduands. We get to celebrate our intellectual prowess by hanging sheets with slogans on them out of bus windows, driving round a number of selected destinations while making as much noise as possible and singing jingles about how proud we are to have finally made it.
Of course, what would any traditional celebration be without the usual dose of rivalry? As a law student I can't help but comment about the ongoing supposed rivalry with commerce students. In my first weeks as a law student some three years ago, a friend of mine, who happened to be starting out in Commerce, asked me if it was true that we ("we" being law students) hated them ("them" being commerce students). I remember looking at him and asking myself where he could have gotten that idea from and saying as much. Over the years though, I've come to realize that it wasn't an idea as much as a tradition.
Ask any law or commerce student why it is that this "rivalry" exists, and the usual answers that can be heard are normally "I don't know" or "That's the way it is" or "Law/Commerce students are annoying so we don't like them". Personally I feel that these are unfounded reasons for carrying on a rivalry. I fail to understand why it even started or why it continues.
Taking a look at daily university life, both commerce and law students get along with one another as well as can be expected. For some reason though, come graduation time, both courses feel the need to jibe at one another rather than focusing on celebrating their own success. In order for one custom to be replaced by a new one however, the latter must gain some degree of uniformity, consistency and widespread representation in order to shun the former. Judging from the celebrations this far though, that doesn't seem to be the case.
In any such case, so long as there are no hard feelings and nothing is said intentionally, there is no reason why a time like this shouldn't be enjoyed to the full. I'd like to wish heartfelt congratulations to all those graduating and a shared understanding of the hangovers we are to suffer over the coming weeks!
Alexandra Vella, 21, is graduating L.L.B. this month. She forms part of the University students' InSite team.
Having obtained a first degree myself, I understand only too well the excitement and significance that graduation means.
Graduating is essentially the ultimate goal of any student enrolling into a university course. Successfully managing this sets the mark for future opportunities both in the working world and in further studies. It is therefore, no small wonder that every year successful students embark on an entire series of celebrations, revelries and festivities.
The road to academic success is not an effortless one, especially in light of today's increased competition. Achievement depends on a number of factors, the most important of which are the lecturers and the students themselves.
Anyone who has been to university has experienced the frustration of turning up for a cancelled lecture, or discovering a last-minute tutorial no one knew of, or else reading an exam question in your final paper on a topic only ever mentioned in passing.
It's at times like these that we realize the importance of our lecturers' role. Studying alone from notes and books can only take us so far. The lecturers' experience and explanations derived from such experiences can prove to be vital to helping us students grasp a better understanding of the subject as a whole. On the other hand, responsibility to do the necessary work to achieve the desired results rests on us students. At the end of the day however, after the notes have been studied, the questions answered and the nights gone un-slept, the results are in and they're positive! Let the good times roll!
As the start of October and as a new scholastic year drew upon us all, my inbox started to see the steady flow of new emails other than the usual batch relating to fresher parties and activities. The emailing system we had set up amongst ourselves in order to allow our student representative to be able to communicate with us about lectures, exams and the likes, was now being used as a channel for graduation activities and ideas. Organisation of events was taking place before, after and in between lectures. A popular topic of conversation amongst the female population centered on ball gowns and hair appointments. A banner advertising the FEMA graduation ball has been firmly erected above the doors to the Student House for the past couple of weeks serving as a sure reminder of what is to come. Graduation fever has well and truly struck.
Traditionally, graduation events involve a thanksgiving Mass at St. John's Co-Cathedral followed up by an after-party at the students' venue of choice, an official graduation ceremony where the students don their cap and gown and get to take The Photo that will take its proud position on the mantelpiece in the sitting room, and the much awaited bus-cades. Most of us have, at least once, woken up one November morning and on our way into work or university heard the cacophony of horns, whistles and students cheering. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the sound of a number of proud graduands. We get to celebrate our intellectual prowess by hanging sheets with slogans on them out of bus windows, driving round a number of selected destinations while making as much noise as possible and singing jingles about how proud we are to have finally made it.
Of course, what would any traditional celebration be without the usual dose of rivalry? As a law student I can't help but comment about the ongoing supposed rivalry with commerce students. In my first weeks as a law student some three years ago, a friend of mine, who happened to be starting out in Commerce, asked me if it was true that we ("we" being law students) hated them ("them" being commerce students). I remember looking at him and asking myself where he could have gotten that idea from and saying as much. Over the years though, I've come to realize that it wasn't an idea as much as a tradition.
Ask any law or commerce student why it is that this "rivalry" exists, and the usual answers that can be heard are normally "I don't know" or "That's the way it is" or "Law/Commerce students are annoying so we don't like them". Personally I feel that these are unfounded reasons for carrying on a rivalry. I fail to understand why it even started or why it continues.
Taking a look at daily university life, both commerce and law students get along with one another as well as can be expected. For some reason though, come graduation time, both courses feel the need to jibe at one another rather than focusing on celebrating their own success. In order for one custom to be replaced by a new one however, the latter must gain some degree of uniformity, consistency and widespread representation in order to shun the former. Judging from the celebrations this far though, that doesn't seem to be the case.
In any such case, so long as there are no hard feelings and nothing is said intentionally, there is no reason why a time like this shouldn't be enjoyed to the full. I'd like to wish heartfelt congratulations to all those graduating and a shared understanding of the hangovers we are to suffer over the coming weeks!
Alexandra Vella, 21, is graduating L.L.B. this month. She forms part of the University students' InSite team.
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