College graduation is one of the special moments the graduates and their parents cherish much. On the part of the students, it is the turning point of their lives where they stop depending on their parents and start working for their own (to some, for their families). On the part of the parents, graduation day is where their children succeed in achieving their dreams, and it is a joy for them to witness it. The University makes sure that this special day would be a memorable one to everybody, so it does its best to make every graduation ceremony as orderly and solemnly as possible.
The University conducts two graduation exercises in a year—one in October and one in March/April. Three batches of graduation ceremony were conducted on the 2nd day of April 2011 at the UB Cardinals’ Gymnasium. The first batch, which was held at 10:30am-12:00 noon, comprised the School of Business Administration and Accountancy (SBAA), School of Teacher Education (STE), School of Law (SOL), School of Human Sciences (SHS), School of Dentistry (SOD), School of Law Enforcement Administration (SLEA) and the School of Natural Sciences (SNS). The second ceremony was held from 1:30-3:00 in the afternoon and comprised the following schools: School of International Hospitality and Tourism Management (SIHTM), School of Information Technology (SIT), and School of Engineering and Architecture (SEA). Meanwhile, the third group consisted of the School of Nursing (SON) and was held from 4:30-7:00pm.
The University always wants the best, so in every activity held, a post evaluation is conducted so as to assess its level of performance regarding the activity. The evaluation also serves as a reflective tool in order for the University to do better in the future. This year’s evaluation report was made by the UB Research and Development Center.
The graduates, parents and guests from the three graduation rites served as the respondents. Likewise, the management, faculty members, and other attendees (alumni, students, etc) were solicited for their perception on the conduct of the graduation rites. A total of 153 respondents assessed the event.
The respondents evaluated the graduation according to five (5) areas: conduct of the activity; readers; venue; sound system/multi-media’s functionality; and the overall impact of the activity.
The conduct of the activity, which comprised of the organization, orderliness, solemnity, and provision of adequate time for each part of the graduation ceremony, got a high rate of acceptance and positive regard from the respondents.
On the other hand, the respondents assessed the readers based from their voice volume, pronunciation, enunciation and the ability to communicate their messages. Results show that the respondents were contented with the readers’ performance, only that some comments on the ‘enunciation’ part came out and suggestions like “need training/rehearsals” became consistent.
The venue’s appropriateness for the occasion, security, suitability of the decorations, cleanliness, and ability of accommodating everybody were also evaluated by the respondents and generally, these items got positive responses, though, there were comments that the venue was jam-packed during the last graduation ceremony (Nursing).
In terms of clarity and understandability of the multi-media and sound system, majority responded positively. Many respondents also noted that the sound system/multi-media was effective in providing necessary information.
In general, the three batches of graduation ceremonies were successfully conducted as appraised by the respondents. One respondent expressed that he/she was ‘very satisfied’ with the event from the beginning up to the end.
| By: Noel Llamar – Research Assistant
