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Some US Colleges Cancel, Postpone Graduation Over Virus
Colleges across the U.S. have begun canceling and curtailing graduation amid fears that the coronavirus pandemic will stretch into spring. Some are exploring “virtual” alternatives, while others are considering inviting seniors back for commencement at a later date or just mailing out diplomas.
Schools including Brigham Young University, the Savannah College of Art and Design and Berea College are among those telling students that current commencement ceremonies have been canceled. But dozens of other schools say it's too soon to decide, leaving families uncertain about whether to book flights and hotels and students wondering whether to purchase caps and gowns for the walk across the stage.
The graduation decision is being made as colleges scramble to move instruction online and send students home, a move being made by dozens of schools in an attempt to curb spread of the virus. The list of those moving to the web continued to grow Thursday, with schools from Southern Methodist University to the University of Alaska making the change.
At Grinnell College in Iowa, which is sending students home this month, officials said there will be no “traditional” graduation ceremony. Instead, the school is mulling how it could honor graduating seniors in an online ceremony. Officials are also debating whether to bring seniors back in 2021 and offer a ceremony for two classes at once.
“We want to be celebrate and cherish our students,” said Anne Harris, dean and vice president for academic affairs at the private school of 1,700 students. “But we were following the logic: If we're sending everybody out, why would we bring everybody back in?”
Some students say they understand the need for caution but would feel robbed if they missed a milestone that they spent years working to reach.
At Wesleyan University in Connecticut, which is still weighing options, senior Melisa Olgun said commencement is a celebration not only of her college career but also the sacrifices that her parents, immigrants from Turkey, made to get her there. Olgun is the first in her family to graduate from a U.S. university and wants her mother to see her accept her diploma.
“This diploma is not just for myself. It's for my family, it's for my parents,” Olgun said. “That ability to stand on that stage, to do that, is something I've been thinking of and dreaming of since I was a young girl.”
Still, she feels conflicted about a possible cancellation. “On one hand I'm very sad, but I also acknowledge the seriousness of the situation and I'm trying to be rational and understanding about that,” she said.
“Officials at Cornell University said they still hope to host their traditional ceremony but warned that it's unknown whether that will be possible. Florida International University told students that events are expected to proceed but said officials are also working on “possible alternative plans.”
The coronavirus has infected around 128,000 people worldwide and killed over 4,700. The death toll in the U.S. climbed to 39, with over 1,300 infections.
For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illnesses, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the virus in a matter of weeks.
Schools say they're following the advice of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and state health officials who are recommending against mass gatherings as the virus spreads. Governors in some states have called for limits on large events. But schools say it's hard to forecast where things will stand in two months, and some say it would be premature to cancel.
Some colleges, however, said they're canceling now so they don't force parents to scuttle their plans at the last minute.
Berea College in Kentucky was among the first to cancel ceremonies this week, telling students it would be rescheduled “to a date when such a gathering can be conducted safely.” Officials said they were erring on the side of caution but still want to honor graduates.
“They've worked hard and we want to recognize all that they've accomplished. But we want to do that in a way that protects them and doesn't jeopardize their safety,” said Tim Jordan, a school spokesman.
Canceling commencement can also carry financial implications for schools. Some colleges spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on ceremonies featuring celebrity speakers, dining spreads and other displays of pomp and circumstance. Colleges that have canceled say they don't know if their speakers will return for later events, or how the cancellation will affect budgets.
Some schools, including Tulane University are already announcing that, in case of a cancellation, students will be refunded for their regalia purchases.
Some schools are scaling back ceremonies without eliminating them entirely. The Florida Institute of Technology says the school's spring ceremony will be broken into several smaller events that only students will be allowed to attend. Families will be able to watch online, officials said, and graduates can also return for summer or fall exercises.
California State University, Sacramento, said it will make a decision about commencement once officials have “a better understanding of the ongoing impact” of the virus. But the school has decided to cancel all other graduation activities, including hooding ceremonies and cultural celebrations.
Canceling graduation is rare but not without precedent in the United States. Schools across the nation scrapped ceremonies in 1970 amid protests over the Vietnam War, and some invited students back to be honored decades later. More recently, outdoor ceremonies in Florida and Texas have been called off amid heavy storms, but most were rescheduled later.
At Harvard University, senior Tom Osborn is now wondering whether his family from Migori, Kenya, should cancel their plans to visit for graduation. The school, which is sending students home this week, said it's too soon to make a decision but officials are working on contingency plans.
“It was going to be my family's first time to campus. They were all excited,'' said Osborn, who is studying psychology. “It's unfortunate. I hope things will still work out.”
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US advisory council ends Nigeria visit, signs student exchange deal
Members of a U.S. presidential advisory council have approved a student exchange deal between an American college and a Nigerian university as part of the council's effort to strengthen collaboration on education, health, entrepreneurship and development between Africa and Africans living abroad.
The council also visited a health facility supported by the United States Agency for International Development in the capital.
Nigerian authorities and visitors chatted with members of the U.S President's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement as they toured a healthcare facility in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, on the last day of the council's three-day visit to Abuja and Lagos.
The facility is one of many supported by the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, to improve the management of childhood illnesses, family planning, immunization and delivery.
The tour was part of the council's effort to promote African diaspora-led investments in technology entrepreneurship, education and healthcare delivery.
"They're doing a phenomenal job there, it really gave us a sense of what the healthcare system is in Nigeria," said Deniece Laurent-Mantey, executive director of the advisory council. "This is our first trip as a council to the continent and we chose Nigeria for a reason — the diaspora in Nigeria is very active, very influential, and they're really a source of strength when it comes to our U.S.-Africa policy. And so for us coming to Nigeria was very intentional."
The council was created by President Joe Biden in September to improve collaboration between Africa and its diaspora in terms of economic and social development.
Akila Udoji, manager of the Primary Healthcare Centre of Karu, said officials in Nigeria were pleased that the council members were able to visit.
"We're happy that they have seen what the money they have given to us to work with has been used to do, because they have been able to assist us in capacity-building, trainings, equipment supply and the makeover of the facility," Udoji said.
Earlier, the council signed a deal for a student exchange program between Spelman College in the southern U.S. city of Atlanta and Nigeria's University of Lagos.
Laurent-Mantey said education exchanges are one of the council's top priorities.
"In Lagos, we had the president of Spelman College — she's also a member of our council — she signed an agreement with the University of Lagos to further education exchange programs in STEM and creative industries between those two universities," Laurent-Mantey said. "And I think for us it's very important, because Spelman College is a historically Black university, and so here we are promoting the importance of collaboration between African Americans and Africans."
In March, the advisory council adopted its first set of recommendations for the U.S. president, including the student exchange initiative, advocating for more U.S. government support for Africa, climate-focused initiatives, and improving U.S. visa access for Africans.
The council met with Nigerian health and foreign affairs officials during the visit before leaving the country on Wednesday.
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5 killed, dozens injured in clashes over Bangladesh jobs quota system
At least 5 people were killed and dozens injured in two separate incidents in Bangladesh as violence continued Tuesday on university campuses in the nation's capital and elsewhere over a government jobs quota system, local media reports said quoting officials.
At least three of the dead were students and one was a pedestrian, the media reports said. Another man who died in Dhaka remained unidentified.
The deaths were reported Tuesday after overnight violence at a public university near Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. The violence involved members of a pro-government student body and other students, when police fired tear gas and charged the protesters with batons during the clashes, which spread at Jahangir Nagar University in Savar, outside Dhaka, according to students and authorities.
Protesters have been demanding an end to a quota reserved for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971, which allows them to take up 30% of governmental jobs.
They argue that quota appointments are discriminatory and should be merit-based. Some said the current system benefits groups supporting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Some Cabinet ministers criticized the protesters, saying they played on students' emotions.
The Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily newspaper reported that one person died in Dhaka and three others, including a pedestrian, were killed after they suffered injuries during violence in Chattogram, a southeastern district, on Tuesday.
Prothom Alo and other media reports also said that a 22-year-old protester died in the northern district of Rangpur.
Details of the casualties could not be confirmed immediately.
While job opportunities have expanded in Bangladesh's private sector, many find government jobs stable and lucrative. Each year, some 3,000 such jobs open up to nearly 400,000 graduates.
Hasina said Tuesday that war veterans — commonly known as "freedom fighters" — should receive the highest respect for their sacrifice in 1971 regardless of their current political ideologies.
"Abandoning the dream of their own life, leaving behind their families, parents and everything, they joined the war with whatever they had," she said during an event at her office in Dhaka.
Protesters gathered in front of the university's official residence of the vice chancellor early Tuesday when violence broke out. Demonstrators accused the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a student wing of Hasina's ruling Awami League party, of attacking their "peaceful protests." According to local media reports, police and the ruling party-backed student wing attacked the protesters.
But Abdullahil Kafi, a senior police official, told the country's leading English-language newspaper Daily Star that they fired tear gas and "blank rounds" as protesters attacked the police. He said up to 15 police officers were injured.
More than 50 people were treated at Enam Medical College Hospital near Jahangir Nagar University as the violence continued for hours, said Ali Bin Solaiman, a medical officer of the hospital. He said at least 30 of them suffered pellet wounds.
On Monday, violence also spread at Dhaka University, the country's leading public university, as clashes gripped the campus in the capital. More than 100 students were injured in the clashes, police said.
On Tuesday, protesters blocked railways and some highways across the country, and in Dhaka, they halted traffic in many areas as they vowed to continue demonstrating until the demands were met.
Local media said police forces were spread across the capital to safeguard the peace.
Swapon, a protester and student at Dhaka University who gave only his first name, said they want the "rational reformation of the quota scheme." He said that after studying for six years, if he can't find a job, "it will cause me and my family to suffer."
Protesters say they are apolitical, but leaders of the ruling parties accused the opposition of using the demonstrations for political gains.
A ruling party-backed student activist, who refused to give his name, told The Associated Press that the protesters with the help of "goons" of the opposition's Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami party vandalized their rooms at the student dormitories near the Curzon Hall of Dhaka University.
The family-of-the-veterans quota system was halted following a court order after mass student protests in 2018. But last month, Bangladesh's High Court nulled the decision to reinstate the system once more, angering scores of students and triggering protests.
Last week, the Supreme Court suspended the High Court's order for four weeks and the chief justice asked protesting students to return to their classes, saying the court would issue a decision in four weeks.
However, the protests have continued daily, halting traffic in Dhaka.
The quota system also reserves government jobs for women, disabled people and ethnic minority groups, but students have protested against only the veterans system.
Hasina maintained power in an election in January that was again boycotted by the country's main opposition party and its allies due to Hasina's refusal to step down and hand over power to a caretaker government to oversee the election.
Her party favors keeping the quota for the families of the 1971 war heroes after her Awami League party, under the leadership of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the independence war with the help of India. Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975.
