Make Way For 1000 Vibrant Victoria Graduates
More than 1,000 Victoria University students will parade through the streets of Wellington next week to celebrate
reaching an educational milestone – graduation.
Victoria's December graduation celebrations start with a street parade at 12 pm on 11 December when the graduands will
make their way from the Government Buildings up Lambton Quay to the Civic Square to be welcomed by Mayor Kerry
Prendergast.
The first of three ceremonies will commence at the Michael Fowler Centre at 1.30pm, where graduands of the Faculty of
Humanities and Social Sciences will cross the stage to be capped with mortarboards symbolising the completion of their
degrees, diplomas and certificates.
Two distinguished New Zealanders will be honoured with Honorary Doctorates – internationally renowned poet Fleur Adcock
and ornithologist and author Christopher Robertson.
Ms Adcock will deliver a speech to graduands and their families and friends at the first ceremony on Tuesday, and
TradeMe founder Sam Morgan is to speak at the afternoon ceremony to graduands of the Faculty of Commerce and
Administration. Lou Sanson, CEO of Antarctica New Zealand, will address graduands at the third ceremony on Wednesday.
Graduation highlights:
Second time around: Glenys Bullivant graduated with a BA in English and History before the
Michael Fowler Centre was built in 1962, and 45 years later will return to Wellington to graduate for the second time
with a Postgraduate Certificate in Archives and Records Management through the School of Library and Information
Science. She notes the huge difference in teaching and learning styles, from her first taste of tertiary education in
1959 where she hard-wrote assignments, to her online lectures this year with 'virtual classmates' from
Whangarei to Invercargill. Her father Rhys was a graduate of Victoria University College in the 1920s. Mrs Bullivant can
be contacted at: 021 253 6349
Mother and daughter team: Senior legal adviser Cordelia Thomas will graduate with her PhD in medical law and bioethics in the same ceremony as her
daughter, Jessica Thomas, who will graduate will an LLB. Mrs Thomas can be contacted at 04 4397675 or 0274752665.
Ceremony details:
Tuesday 11 December: Michael Fowler Centre
Noon street parade
Ceremony 1: 1.30pm Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences
Honorary Doctorate: Fleur Adcock
Ceremony 2: 6.00pm Faculty of Commerce & Administration
Wednesday 12 December: Michael Fowler Centre
Ceremony 3: 10.30am Faculties of Architecture & Design, Education, Law, and Science
Honorary Doctorate: Christopher Robertson
If the parade is cancelled due to wet weather, notification will be given on Newstalk ZB from 11am on the morning of the
parade.
ENDS