Nazarbayev University Graduation 2017

This year was the third graduation from our university.  The first two years graduation was held in one of the halls in our new administration building.  It is a nice space, but not big enough.  This year, the university completed (and by completed, we mean finished enough to be functional) a new outdoor amphitheater to be used for larger events.  The president has attended all three graduations, but his schedule dictates things.

This year his schedule changed about two weeks before graduation and so the date was changed to a day earlier.  This meant that the families of many of the students could not attend.  That is unfortunately par for the course here.  The thought isn't about the students and their families.  It's a big reason why things here can only be scheduled at the last minute (two weeks' notice is an eternity) - because anything more and you are reliant on someone else's schedule and they may change their mind.

I was asked to be the marshal of the graduate students from our school (Econ, Eurasian studies and Political Science).  That meant that I had to be at graduation practice.  That took place on Friday, May 26. We did photos in the morning and practice in the afternoon.  The practice was very hot, and we went through every single name - meaning that we spent about 3 hours in the heat in our robes.

With colleagues waiting for pictures on Practice day.

My MA student, Madina.  She was our first MA student to defend her thesis this year.

Workers started re-doing brick sidewalk right when everyone came out for pictures.  Taken from our apartment.

Everyone lining up, but construction must go on!

New part of university. Two days before graduation and working like crazy to get it "done enough."

The students had an extra practice at the new amphitheater.  Lucky them!

Because the president was coming, we had to go through additional security.  We were told to bring our university identification, a copy of our passport, and a printed invitation saying we were faculty.  We had to be through security and lined up at 8:30 to start the ceremony at 9:00 (the processional began at 8:45).  I brought all the listed items and was grilled for not having an official identification.  I had extra security pat downs and was only reluctantly let through.  I don't imagine that many people would take the time to dress in academic regalia to crash the president's speech.... but what can you do?

The big excitement was the rain.  It started as a drizzle, but by the time we were all seated it was a downpour.  The university president gave his prepared 20-minute speech, and then they awarded the doctorate degrees (the first in the university) to 9 students from the school of education.

This was a photo from a local news site from the real graduation.... My face about sums up how I felt about being soaked through.

By this time everyone was soaked through to the bone and the decision was made to move the graduation inside for "plan B."  This plan had not been practiced, and so it was chaotic.  The president was going to cancel, but decided to come.  When that announcement came, they stopped giving diplomas, announced that we would have a brief pause, and then we all stood for over an hour while furious activity to spruce things up took place.  New podiums, new chairs, balloons, and flower arrangements were brought in.  Then we waited.

The president came and spoke for about twenty minutes.  The acoustics were awful, so even though I was within twenty feet I couldn't make out most of what he was saying (he spoke half in Kazakh and half in Russian.  He gave the diplomas to the PhD students, and then left.  Then we continued giving diplomas to the rest of the students.

It was a long day of standing.

A surreptitious photo of the president.  Shot through the press scrum while he awarded diplomas to PhD students.  I was about 20 feet from him.