University to hold procession

Press, 1 April 1980, Page 6

University to hold procession

The traditional university procession, which was called off last year, will be. reinstated this- year., ?' ‘ The Chancellor of the University of Canterbury (Miss Jean Herbison) the University Council yesterday that the executive committee had decided not to hold the usual graduation M.cerenjony last year; ; the 1 procession from the old university ; site to the Town Hall had little relevance to today’s graduates. J.

There ..was very little public interest in the procession and too much organisation was needed zip; hold ; if.// . ' Miss Herbispn said it was up to the cbuncil/td/decide whether it wanted’' toj hold the p ro cess ion \thisy ear.'. Mr R.' H, Bowron said he thought . the-’ . - procession should be resumed to publicise the presence of the university in Christchurch now that it was removed from the centre of the. city. He said that none of the executive -committee’s arguments for- ’ not holding the procession was persuasive. The president < of ■ the Students’ Association (Mr A. J. Stuart) agreed. ’ He said that the under-

graduates and graduates had not had a festival at-the same time for four years and he would like to see ah ideal capping ceremony where the two had a: procession and celebration-together., Internal assessment : and ; /< apathy among the students had meant that the ’traditional graduation. procession had fallen by the wayside. r The Mayor bf Christchurch (Mr H. G. Hay) said that it would be "most desirable” to re-establish the procession, which was a reminder that university life still existed in the community. \ > : . < Other council members also expressed concern about what they termed “the'growing tendency to sweep pageantry under the carpet,” Dr I. Snook said that he liked dressing up but he wondered if the sight of well dressed, highly academic staff and students, "parading in town” might jnot upset people who were working. >