CUHK students urge rescheduling for graduation ceremony after typhoon cancellation

Many students from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) took to social media to urge the university to reschedule the graduation ceremony instead of cancelling it due to the effects of Tropical Storm Toraji.

This came after CUHK announced last night (Nov 13) that the graduation ceremony scheduled to be held at The University Mall this morning would be cancelled due to the impact of the tropical storm Toraji.

CUHK said it was regretful that the solemn ceremony which had been long awaited by graduates and their parents had to be cancelled. It was estimated that 5,000 students are affected.

The nine colleges of CUHK were scheduled to hold graduation ceremonies on Thursday. According to CUHK’s arrangements, the graduation ceremonies of 6 colleges, including New Asia College, United College, and Morningside College, were cancelled.

As soon as the news came out, many graduates flooded the Internet with messages expressing disappointment and hoping that CUHK would consider rearranging the invaluable graduation ceremony.

On Instagram, there were over 2,500 comments stating their anger and disappointment with some accusing the school's social media of hiding and deleting comments.

Many also criticized the school for their decision to not have a backup plan and stated the graduation ceremony was very valuable to the students and that there were students and their families who came back to Hong Kong for the sake of the ceremony and hoped that the school would announce rearrangements.

CUHK said the graduation ceremonies that were supposed to be held outdoor this morning were cancelled, but stated that the ceremonies to be held indoors in the afternoon. It added that the master's and doctorate graduation ceremonies held on November 15 and 16 will go ahead as planned.

The school further stated that the graduation ceremony is traditionally held in a temporary structure at the University Mall, and due to safety concerns, it had to be cancelled, with the workers removing all the equipment on-site overnight due to safety concerns.

However, the university later announced that it would reschedule the congregation and six college graduation ceremonies for Sunday (November 17) after a registered structural engineer confirmed the large marquee set up at the University Mall remains safe and stable for use after the typhoon.

(Updated at 5.15 pm)