Is This Right? See How Babcock University ‘Punishes’ Graduands For Not Staying Till The End Of Convocation!

This letter was written by a grauduand of Babcock University who says himself and his colleagues have been made to pay a sum of N25,000 for collecting their certificate which naturally should come free. He says a lot of them have been paying because they have no choice, but some are yet to pay due to lack of money and things shouldn’t be done this way, especially in a Christian school.  The major reason they gave according to him was that they didn't wait till the end of convocation and had to be punished. The convocation ceremony of the Amethyst Graduating Class 2014 of Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria was held on June 1st, 2014 at the school's stadium. It was 3 convocation ceremonies in one - first degree, masters and PhD.

A number of dignitaries were present and some of them were presented with honorary doctorate degrees. The program lingered on for over 5 hours during which many parents for whom inadequate provision had been made, had to stand through the program even while it rained, to watch their children convocate.

However, certificates were only handed to first-class graduates (first degree) and the rest were to return to the school later on to get theirs.
  
Due to the impatience of the parents who were drenched, agitated and tired of all the unnecessary speeches and protocol, a somewhat disorderly exit of the parents ensued. Who could blame them? Many of them had far distances to travel back. Of course, they started to call their children, who found ways to exit since in fact, their own ceremony was over.

Weeks later when the rest of the certificates were ready for collection, students were mandated to pay N25,000, an order said to have been from the Vice-Chancellor (supposedly because the procession that was to be done at the end of the ceremony was ruined causing some form of embarrassment to the school). The Registry used lists said to have been signed by the graduands that waited till the end of the program, to issue out the certificates. If your name wasn't on that list, you had to pay N25,000 before getting your certificate. This is unfair on too many levels. The roll call should have been done at the beginning.

 Normally, certificates are to be issued out to all the graduands during the convocation ceremony, as a matter of right actually, talk less of after paying such exorbitant rates as fees for quality education. There were over 1,500 students that convocated that day (excluding the first-class graduands). Do the math.

They need to stop abusing Christianity and using the name of Jesus in vain. This isn't what Christianity or discipline is about. It is theft.