Several colleges go uncalled at university-wide commencement, caused by misunderstanding

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  • Different colleges went uncalled at Saturday’s university-wide commencement cermony. 

Nathan Woodruff

Certain majors were not specifically announced during Saturday’s commencement ceremonies at Georgia Southern University, sending several students into a frenzy.

The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences decided to name some degrees simply a Bachelor of Sciences, rather than announce each major individually. Interim Registrar Wallace Brown said that each college named their degrees differently.

“It depends on how the degree is named by the college,” Brown said. In some cases, the degree is simply called “Bachelor of Science”. This would apply to majors such as recreation, interior design, etc.  In other cases, the college named the degree to include the major such as “Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.”

Some students were not informed of this, and did not know when they were supposed to stand.

Cole Chambless, senior recreation major said his specific major was not announced in Saturday’s university wide ceremony, leaving himself

and other students sitting.

“As the president was nearing the end of the list, myself and others in my college, the School of Human Ecology, realized we were the only remaining students sitting,” Chambless said. “This was extremely disappointing, as we worked so hard for four or more years to get to that exact moment, just to be forgotten.”

Morgan Guthrie, senior psychology major, also said that her major not being specifically called meant she did not get the opportunity to stand.

“While they recognized all the degrees at the University-wide ceremony, they failed to recognize any students from College of Human Ecology and College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, I had peers who did not stand up for recognition and graduation confirmation at the university-wide commencement, Guthrie said. “It was extremely unorganized as graduates were not explained for which degree to stand up for respectively and frustrating to students who work so incredibly hard to graduate.”

The misunderstanding and confusion will be discussed as well as any other feedback taken, Brown said.

“All of the degrees were called it just seems it was confusing to the students,” Brown said. This is very good feedback that we will take forward to the committee.”

Nathan Woodruff, The George-Anne Managing News Editor, ganewsed@georgiasouthern.edu