Hi everyone, Cynthia, your Health & Society Officer here. I want to let you all know what we’re asking from the University as next steps for Winter Graduation.

Below is what your Officer team have asked the University to work towards: 

- Try to complete all graduations before Christmas 2021. Many international student visas will expire before the end of the year. Over the summer students were given the expectation that they would be able to graduate in the winter, and the University should do what it can to be able to meet this promise.

- Try to minimise the cost of attending graduation.

- Try to maintain the quality of the experience, this includes not having evening ceremonies (as has already been agreed).

- Try to promote the interests of the graduands above current students as well as the parents and supporters of the graduands.

We’ve outlined our proposal:

We recommend that you extend the ceremonies into the Saturday, Monday and Tuesday of the following week. If suppliers are unavailable then, wherever possible, they should be substituted.

We think that if you ask parents or supporters not to attend those ceremonies you will be able to meet demand (if demand is lower than anticipated you could always allow parents in.). Please remember that your initial survey said that nothing close to 16,000 participants were interested in attending, so there is still the possibility of meeting demand with some more ceremonies (more than 2100 per day if parents are not invited, so up to 6300 in the scenario I’ve outlined).

We also believe that parents/ supporters will be understanding of the situation and that their main priority is to ensure their children are able to graduate ‘on time’. The reputational damage that this might cause can be mitigated by providing free items to graduands such as gowns, and by providing free food and drink in the areas where the event is being live streamed. Students who wish to graduate with their parents/ supporters in the audience can defer to June next year.

While there will be some disruption to some Film Production and Dance students they will understand as they are aware of the situation and want to help. We’re also ready to work with the Course Reps on the Film Production course to ensure the impact on the course is minimal, and we believe that the Dance students can be accommodated at the Lowry site as discussed earlier in the week.

We believe this suggestion:

- Will conclude the issue before the end of the year.

- Is the closest plan to the original plan that was laid out, and so therefore brings clarity to those involved.

- Meets the main thrust of the complaints that have been received by USSU – that students simply want to graduate with their cohort.

- Meet the needs of international students and their visa requirements.

We are happy to work with the University to:

- Sell this plan to students and graduands, and their parents/ supporters.

- Secure space for the video streaming, in the north side and in the marquee outside of University House (which have adequate A/V for this purpose).

If you believe that parents/ supporters being present at graduation is an essential component (we do not) then I would ask you to consider even more additional days in December 2021.

We’ve asked to be informed of the final decision by the end of this week and to be kept updated on the progress and thinking.

Cynthia,

On behalf of the USSU Officer Team.