Photo credit: Mason Korea
As an academic journey comes to a close, there is one celebration that follows: graduation. However, this is not the case for the Fall 2023 George Mason University graduates at Mason Korea. An announcement sent out to the student body, staff, and faculty on October 4th, 2023 by the leadership at the Academic Affairs Office reported that all graduation ceremonies at the Korean campus will be held during the Spring semesters of each year, indicating that all Fall graduation ceremonies at Mason Korea have officially been terminated.
The cancelation of the Fall 2023 Graduation Ceremony left students dumbfounded with limited explanation as to why graduation was canceled. The decision ultimately came with extreme backlash from students, including graduates themselves. James Haider, a 2023 Fall Graduate majoring in Global Affairs, expresses, “It’s disappointing and almost insulting to cancel graduation, especially since most of us that are graduating are student leaders or very involved at Mason Korea. It feels like they made the decision based on what was best for the university and not the students.” To many students, graduation is a meaningful and symbolic event that marks the end of a chapter, and the beginning of a new one.
The backlash followed after Academic Affairs’ initial email was sent roughly two months after the start of the Fall 2023 semester. Although the final decision to cancel the Fall 2023 Graduation Ceremony was confirmed prior to the start of the semester, the leadership at Mason Korea withheld the decision from students. “We [the graduates] were all under the impression that we would have a graduation ceremony until October when the email was sent out,” Haider reveals. The guideline that determines the decision to hold a graduation ceremony was created after the 2022 Fall Graduation Ceremony ended with an unexpectedly low attendance rate from the graduating class. As each graduation ceremony is estimated to cost approximately ten million won, the continuous low participation rate has become one of the reasons for terminating Fall graduations. “Leadership said ‘you should’ve been prepared for a potential cancelation because it was in the guideline…’ Yes, they announced the guideline in the winter, spring, and beginning of this semester, but there was no official announcement that confirmed any cancellation until October, so we all assumed there would be a ceremony.” The information regarding the graduation guidelines was not immediately accessible to students.
To replace the 2023 Fall Graduation Ceremony, a celebration for the graduates was held at the university’s biannual event known as the Celebration of Achievement. At this event, students throughout the university, no matter the graduating class, are traditionally recognized for their academic achievements, scholarships, commitment to Registered Student Organizations, and overall status as George Mason University students. This semester, unlike the previous year, students of the graduating class were recognized for their academic achievements at the event. Three graduates, out of the eleven students physically present in South Korea to graduate, showed up to the Celebration of Achievement. “We chose to honor those who were graduating at the Celebration of Achievement to ensure that every one that is at Mason Korea had the opportunity to celebrate the most important achievement of our students at the same time…Most importantly, to give space for individuals who would normally have a small number of people in the room to celebrate with them a larger crowd-which is more consistent with what happens at the U.S. campus,” Shannon Davis, Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs, shares.
“It feels like a consolation prize,” Haider says when questioned about the Celebration of Achievement, “They made this announcement very late in the semester and it seemed like they were trying to fit these graduating students somewhere.” The guideline presented by the university claims that if there are six or more graduating students, a full graduation ceremony will be held. Numbers less than six have different, smaller celebrations. “Everyone had already applied for graduation through PatriotWeb and were accepted, so everything that had been announced until October was expected to be concrete.” Another student, Kanglim Kim, Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’24, describes celebrating graduation at the Celebration of Achievement as “wrong and not the same type of appreciation and recognition for graduate students’ achievement.”
In light of these new policies, the Academic Affairs Office as well as university leadership are open to feedback and suggestions regarding graduation or other opportunities of celebration. Angela Kang, Associate Dean of University Life, mentions, “With this big shift, we’ve decided to create a graduation committee where PR, faculty, staff, and students can help plan our June graduations together…It will be a collective way to think about how we do the graduation ceremony. For the students, we plan to partner with Student Government on getting a student representative on the graduation committee.” The graduation committee plans to be in effect starting the Spring 2024 semester. The Spring Graduation Ceremonies will open its doors to all graduating students from the Fall, Summer, and Spring semesters. “Students will graduate…There’s a distinction between the ceremony and the receipt of the diploma. Just because there may not be a graduation, does not mean there’s no diploma.”
Written by Madison Sailakkham |Managing Editor
Revised by Madison Sailakkham |Managing Editor