Monday night, on LBCI’s show Vision 2030, President of the American University of Beirut Dr. Faldo Khuri proposed that AUB do a ‘virtual graduation’ amid the coronavirus situation.
And the people are not happy.
Oleksandra El-Zahran, a social media figure, wrote on Twitter: “If I were you, I would never agree to @AUB_Lebanon virtual graduation… .” And many don’t.
Yara, graduating this year and furious at the thought of a virtual graduation, took to Twitter to express her feelings. Basically, she said exactly what’s on many people’s minds: that her parents didn’t go through the trouble of paying high tuition fees for years just to see their daughter graduating via a screen.
Some students on Twitter would even rather postpone their graduation rather than do it virtually.
Even non-AUB students felt bad about hearing this.
One person commented, “I’m so mad @AUB_Lebanon is thinking about having a virtual graduation and I’m not even a student there. Imagine working and paying your a** off to have it happen virtually.”
Then, of course, there were students who couldn’t help but use humor as their defense mechanism. Behold the homemade memes:
Finally, the comment about the AUB virtual graduation that made the most sense: “Unlimited seats!”
Will AUB really have a virtual graduation in 2020?
Twitter user @mamhaidly had an important question that went like: “Why did Fadlo make such a statement when the situation is still undetermined?”
So perhaps it’s too early to tell. Or maybe, since Dr. Faldo Khuri comes from medical background and can probably anticipate how the Covid-19 situation will unfold, he thinks that a virtual graduation is more than likely?
Of course, nothing is confirmed yet, and according to Twitter user @lebourbonchic, AUB will issue a formal email in the coming weeks to clarify.
In light of the Covid-19 outbreak, Dr. Fadlo Khuri has been urging the university members to work together and adhere to new precautionary measures and hopefully get through this together.
Meanwhile, Dr. Khuri is trying to find solutions for students and their grades as they cannot attend their classes currently.
Surely in a couple of months, there will be more clarity on the matter of graduation.
But here’s the real questions: who’s taking care of AUB cats?
