Convocation at Dal

This an overview of convocation at Dal. I'm a little fuzzy on some of the details of the MUN convocation, mostly I'm not sure I have the order of things correctly.

For Rebecca's 2:30 convocation the audience had tickets that said the audience was to be seated by 2:10. This didn't really happen and I believe we started late because of it. The programme was 5.5in x 8.5in, a nice size to fit in one's hand.

First, the "platform party" enters from the back of the room and walks onto the stage. Immediately following the graduands enter. The graduands have to wait standing for some time before entering. Presumably they have been given instructions outside while waiting. When everyone is in place we have the President's Welcome (by Dr. Tom Traves, president). It was much more complimentary to Dal than the equivalent speech at MUN is to MUN. However, there was no promotional video. The graduands were organized by faculty, but when they cross the stage their department of major is mentioned. The undergrads (sans hat and already wearing their hoods) move to the middle of the stage, kneel in front of the Chancellor to have him confer the degree by touching them on the should with an mortarboard. The graduate then rises and moves from the middle of the stage to the other side where it is handed its degree in a gold coloured tube before exiting the stage. It is similar for the graduands receiving their Master's degrees, expect they have mortarboards on, and I believe they only shake the hand of the Chancellor. The PhD is a different, the supervisor comes on stage to hood the graduate and then after receiving their degree they sit on stage as opposed to leaving it.

For the honourary graduate there is an introduction that is read out from the programme, not the same as the oration at MUN. There is no procession either, the graduate just walks to the podium and then returns to its seat.

The ceremony ends with the singing of O Canada. The platform party exits first, followed by the graduates, followed closely by the audience. Refreshments are served in the lobby afterwards.

One big difference that isn't mentioned above is that the audience is encouraged to move around and take photographs, which is somewhat disruptive and it causes a lot of graduates to hang out on stage while being handed their degree to pose for a nice photo-op.