8 reasons for doing away with inaugural ceremonies of in-house (at least!) academic programs


Inaugural ceremonies are (un)avoidable often. Is it because, if an event, even while it is in-house, if it is not inaugurated, it can not be deemed to have begun? If it is a necessity, why are the institutions hell bent on making it as long and as boring as possible? Why are the office bearers of the committees which run the colleges, who double as guests / chief guests for in-house events, take it unprofessionally and make it fail in meeting the objective? Since this is a regular feature of the events in many institutions, not just HEIs, I thought I will scribble why we need to do away with the inaugural ceremonies so that it doesnt prey into and work against what is being inaugurated. 


1. Inaugural ceremonies of in-house programmes are invariably delayed, often thanks to the chief guest, guest or a local office bearer of the college committee. It could also be administrator, director, coordinator, academic advisor as they come in multiple guises! This forces the programme to run behind schedule. This Chief-delayer will be a person with minimal respect for other's time and a staunch believer in the delay-philosophy to which she/he may have contributed massively over the years. An hours delay in a programme attended by 100 participants is 100 hours delay! But the delayer-in-chief will not be aware of these as others time doesnt feature prominently in her self-centred scheme of things.

2. The real focus of the programme is pushed down the agenda. The session by a trainer or talk by an expert becomes secondary for the organisers while, actually the whole exercise is conducted in the name of the activity in focus. The event came first and then the need to have it inaugurated, not the other way round.

3. The audience enthusiasm is effectively killed by the delay in starting the programme and by the shift of the focus to the luminaries (those committee members the crowd meets regularly) whose keynotes which carry no keys and have nothing notable. The most productive early hour/hours are put to uselessness. The welcome speeches which close doors on warmth and welcome with its iterative, boredom value and the predictable processes which follow often add nothing worthy to the whole exercise. The audience eagerness, liveliness, openness to new ideas, readiness to involve, all these are nullified by the opening narratives. By the time the event moves to the focus, the audience will be out of sync and effectively inspired to leave the venue.

4. It is a drain on money too as the whole session was planned with the resources of the HEI and it is natural to expect effective returns from the investment. It doesnt make any sense to organise an event, invite speakers spending internal fund and then organise the event in such a a fashion that the trainer/speaker on whom money is spent is pushed to a corner, made to wait for hours and often made to compromise on length and content. All because the guest, often an insider, the person who should ensure that the fund of the institution is effectively spent, is late.

5. Much of what happens, spoken during the inaugural ceremony, especially when the programme is in-house, will be of no importance, nothing new to the audience. The audience may have listened to the same story, same history, same vision, same mission, same narrative of the fledgling institution of yore, a thousand times! Hence the moment the top office bearer speaks, the in-house audience may shut shop and wait for the moment the address ends. The audience will switch on their smiles and wait for the end of the speech-for-speaker-sake.

6. Felicitations are a sickening bore. When the organizing team or the institutions felicitate themselves, that is sheer nonsense. A Dept organises a seminar and the faculty members who are key to the organising of it, will offer felicitations to the self same event! Afterwards, the same member will be running around organizing the rest of it. Can a better exercise in farce be imagined! Add to it the number of felicitations. While all these felicitators are felicitating the event, they are in fact facilitating the boredom of the audience and catalyzing the invited speakers urge to get the hell out of the venue.

7. A delayed inaugural ceremony of especially an in-house programme is self defeating because it delays and denies what it is supposed to promote. The intention may be professional development of faculty but the delay makes us wonder if it is the self promotion of the local committee office bearer! When the faculty is professionally empowered through the training session delivered effectively, as planned, on time, helping it achieve the outcome intended, it contributes to the growth of the college and hence to the fame of those who lead it, represent it. But this fact doesnt seem to dawn upon the presidents who preside over delays!

8. The felicitations and vote of thanks are absolutely lost on the audience who read it as the beginning of the end of the programme. Unless put it creatively, which is very rare, vote of thanks is as boring as the (un)welcome speech. The participants know that they have to navigate this one final hurdle, before they can get out.

Readers are welcome to add to the list and make it grow! These inaugural rituals may be retained provided it is done sticking to schedule, apportioning only legitimate time, if it is not an in-house programme. This is not to deny very rare instances of brief, effective inaugural sessions conducted by some institutions. But such models are extremely rare.

Babu. P. K., PhD 

Comments

  1. Well said sir. A matter that we all have been experiencing yet could not stop.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Exactly, you said well 👍Sometimes the speakers will be very very slow in their starting and tries to mention the names of persons on the dias which may be repeated y many speakers before this fellow.
    Most noted words from your article ;
    "Much of what happens, spoken during the inaugural ceremony, especially when the programme is in-house, will be of no importance, nothing new to the audience. The audience may have listened to the same story, same history, same vision, same mission, same narrative of the fledgling institution of yore, a thousand times! Hence the moment the top office bearer speaks, the in-house audience may shut shop and wait for the moment the address ends. The audience will switch on their smiles and wait for the end of the speech-for-speaker-sake"

    ReplyDelete

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