Many students as well as Tallahassee natives are in for a change when it comes to this month's convocation. The Black History Convocation is scheduled for Monday, in FAMU’s Gaither Gymnasium at 6 p.m.
Elise Durham, assistant vice president of the office of communications, explained why the black history convocation is schedule for a new time.
“Our goal is always focused on maximizing the total embrace of our students, including opportunities for student engagement. As such, we continue to explore new and exciting options for holding programs and events that we hope will have a positive impact on the student body,” Durham said.
Durham also addresses how the change of date and time will better serve the community involvement with the university.
“To the extent that we also are committed to inviting the community to our campus, we think that being flexible with the timing for programs and events will serve us and the larger community, as we look for opportunities to further engage our stakeholders and supporters on our campus,” Durham said.
When asked if the date and time change will affect the student body, James Lowry, second-year FAMU biology student from Miami, said he believes more students would show up because of the date change but as far as the time change maybe not.
“I think more people will come because it’s on a Monday instead of Friday. People usually don’t come to campus on Friday,” Lowry said. “As for those who will have to come back to campus I think they probably won’t, seeing that they’ll have to come back.”
Bryan Anderson, first-year FAMU industrial engineering student, said in order to get more students to come to convocation the image needs to be changed first not the time.
“I think you have to change the image of convocation from being boring first. A lot of people feel convocation is just boring and until people stop thinking of them as just boring, people won’t really go,” Anderson said.
The duration and format of convocation will remain the same as previous years for the continuation of the 2016 year. However, as Durham mentioned, the goal was to accommodate students’ class schedules as well as to add some flexibility into the university’s calendar of events.
Rahiel Tesfamariam, social activist, public theologian, writer and speaker which holds degrees from Stanford University and Yale Divinity School will be the guest speaker for convocation Monday evening.
For more information about Tesfamariam visit http://www.rahiel.com