On Monday June 13 the event “Inaugural Black Graduation Celebration” took place at McMaster’s University.
Bringing together students, family, friends, faculty and community partners, for an in-person celebration of Black students in the convocation class of 2022″ to celebrate “Black identifying students”
The event was important to
According to Faith Ogunkoya, manager of the Black Student Success Center said “It was important to show off a “ecosystem of Black student success,”
The black only ceremony which was segregated from the school’s convocation ceremony and included students, faculty and community members.
“It was very much about mitigating that social isolation that happens when you feel — in a predominately white institution — you’re outnumbered, it’s good for you to look around and see yourself,” Ogunkoya told the CBC, adding that the ceremony took four weeks of effort to put together.
Dr. Gary Warner was one of the speakers at the event, currently professor emeritus at McMaster University, was the only Black professor on campus back in 1967.
Another black only segregated graduation ceremony was held at Canada’s largest university, University of Toronto in 2017.
