Griffith never ceases to amaze me

Today.
30 July 2007, Ms Chiam & Ong’s Convocation Ceremony. The day when we get to receive the paper which validates our years of hard work and the massive amount of money invested on this expensive education.

I was (of course) acting as her PA to Ms Chiam. Felt very proud of her when she donned her graduation attire on, all smart and serious in her robe and that square hat. My eyes started to sting when the ceremony began…. as it reminded me of TP graduation ceremony; where my dad came alone to witness his daughter receiving several awards and her Diploma on stage. I could almost feel his pride when I stepped up and received my medal, in midst of the excited cheering from my friends. That’s my daughter, he would smile to himself. The emphasis and seriousness that TP placed on giving graduates their due credits on this day was affectionately genuine and heart-warming.

This led me back to today, where this supposedly significant ceremony has presented itself as an emotionless, flat and near-to-pointless occasion for graduates and their guests.

The ceremony took place in Gold Coast Convention Centre where family and friends have to pay 24 bucks to attend. Yes. Each and everyone. You will say: Well, Griffith need to pay manpower fees and rental for the function space, right?

True. But if you do the maths… if there are 300 graduates in the 2 hours afternoon session, with an average of 2 guests (where the estimate is really understated as most of them will have 4 or more). There will be 600 guests x AUD$25 (ticket), making a grand total of AUD15K.

There used to be no charges for carpark, but now, they charging $5 per entry.
Photography came at an extraordinary price- $24 for an A4 size picture. Robe rental came to $60 per graduate. And get this- There were NO refreshments or drinks for the guests. They gave out 2 drink coupons to Wenting (who bought 5 entry tickets) in exchange of 2 bottles of mineral water.

Y’all just about making money money money right? Good business mind, Griffith. Never mind about the graduates. Dig hard for gold while you are at it~

Those who have been to Graduation Ceremony in Singapore, should get the idea of the stark contrast by now. For the price of NOTHING, you get to enjoy mingling with your fellow graduates, family and friends with refreshments served in the foyer. You get to say your farewell to your lecturers and professors, who will be beaming with pride throughout the ceremony.

We could not stay in the foyer for long as it was too crowded and chaotic. I did not see any of the teaching staff (most likely they are in Uni, as today is a School day. We have skipped lesson to attend).

Let’s not compare the Price, Food or the Ambience. Let’s talk about the Basic- the ceremony itself.

When you approached to receive your degree, you will be greeted with the sight of 20 people seated on the stage. They are some kind of Doctors or whatever- which I have no interest to find out who the heck they are. The audience are expected to stand up in respect as they marched in with stony expressions and placed their butts to the chairs on the stage. The Emcee has ‘dictated’ to audience that they should applause for every graduate who receives their Award. Fair enough. I am happy to do that. And what did those High & Mighties did? Only a handful clapped half-heartedly throughout the 90 min ceremony. The rest looked like they have something better to do, flipping their program books again and again. Looking Extremely Bored. Right on the Stage.

And we bloody have to stand on feet and sent them off, with that inspiring music in the background.

WTF.

Why should we be giving them the respect when they give none back?

Never mind about that again. We are perfectly forgiving bunch of folks. But it just pained me when Wenting’s mum asked me: “What? Are they calling her? Wen Chiam? That is not her name….”. I watched in silence when Wenting took stiff strides across the stage. I knew the answer, but I did not wish to explain to her. The answer will be ridiculous. The ceremony went on with weird Asian names that made people laughed quietly.

I have rounded up that almost 55% of the graduates were Asians, mostly consisted of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans. After all, Griffith is THE Uni for International students.

“We care deeply for our international students. We will persist to assist them in any way; we can to make their stay in Australia a meaningful, beneficial and comfortable one.”

That seemed to be the main gist of Griffith message driven to lure potential international students. Wonder if they can sleep at nights with all these false claims. They do not even bother to get their precious cum money-churning students’ names right! It is such a fucking big University with international students flocking in more than they can hope for. And they just couldn’t spend some time and efforts to establish a system to get the ‘allegedly complicated’ Asian names in order (despite all the notifications and complaints that you guys got our names WRONG?)!

You are freaking presenting us the Degree which we worked so hard for it, with a name that we do not even recognise. Does it kill you guys to announce our full names? Is ‘Chiam Wenting’ very difficult? How about that ‘Christopher O’Brien’ that you said so smoothly? That wasn’t complicated or too long??

Is this treatment acceptable? Is it even ethically right?

We spent over 25K for an education in your University. And you offered us with no sincere recognition, no memorable ceremony and a bitter-sour taste in our mouths to take home.

No thanks, Griffith. I will be most likely skipping my own Graduation Ceremony. I do not want my family and friends to spend a bomb to travel here for a meaningless graduation, where you will be calling me upon stage with ‘Kar Ko’, ‘Hwee Ko’ or ‘Ko Hwee’.

That is not Me.