College graduation is a time for celebration, a time to dance and a time to laugh and have fun! What it isn’t supposed to be though, is unfair treatment of minorities and manhandling. This is what occurred on Saturday at a graduation ceremony at the University of Florida.
According to the Miami Herald, it’s a black fraternity and sorority tradition to do the organization’s dance across the stage at graduation, it’s their “stroll.” But as you can see in the video, an extremely aggressive marshal cut their stroll short by physically removing these students from their graduation stage.
This stroll means a lot to students of color, one graduate, Christopher Wilde-Garcia explains “To stroll at graduation at a historically white institution where black students weren’t allowed for a long, long time is a huge accomplishment. We deserve that celebration.”
Another graduate, Oliver Telusma, told the Gainesville Sun, “I had just started … and he picked me up and turned me around, which I thought was kind of embarrassing and degrading to be handled in that manner.”
Telusma added a really important point that “It was just really uncalled for, especially for anyone not martially trained to do that.”
Wilde-Garcia shared about how this really is the way UF treats black students. He says “This little snapshot of what happened at graduation is a little bit of insight into how the university treats minority students, especially black students. Black students are told how to exist at the University of Florida, even on the graduation stage.”
The UF president issued an apology to students in a tweet saying students were “inappropriately rushed.”
During one of this weekend’s commencement ceremonies, we were inappropriately aggressive in rushing students across the stage. I personally apologize, and am reaching out to the students involved. (1/2)
— W. Kent Fuchs (@PresidentFuchs) May 6, 2018
The practice has been halted for all future ceremonies, and we will work to make sure all graduating students know we are proud of their achievements and celebrate with them their graduation. (2/2)
— W. Kent Fuchs (@PresidentFuchs) May 6, 2018
I don’t know if I’d call physical assault inappropriately rushed… But, as of now, the aggressive marshal is on paid administrative leave “pending a review of the appropriate administrative steps.”
Students are calling for the marshal to be identified and fired.