May 13th 2024.
Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia recently found itself in the midst of a controversy when a video of an announcer mispronouncing names at their College of Nursing graduation ceremony went viral. The incident sparked outrage and comparisons to the popular "Substitute Teacher" skit from Key & Peele. In response, the university has issued a public apology for the mishap.
During the ceremony, the announcer struggled to pronounce the names of several graduates, causing some to be pronounced incorrectly and causing confusion among the audience. A recording of the event posted on social media showed names like Sarah Virginia Brennan being pronounced as "Sayer Oo-voon Geen-goo Bree-none" and Maeve Elizabeth as "May-vee Lee Zu-beth." The mispronunciations were attributed to the phonetic spellings of the names written on the cards the announcer was reading from.
In a TikTok video, the announcer can be heard apologizing to the graduates, acknowledging the errors and mentioning that she should have just read from the book instead of relying on the phonetic spellings. The official Twitter account of Thomas Jefferson University also issued a message to the graduates of the College of Nursing, expressing their apologies for the mishap.
The university later released an official statement to People Magazine, expressing their sincerest apologies for the mispronunciations and acknowledging the significance of correctly honoring each graduate's name on such an important day. They also clarified that the mispronunciations were due to the phonetic spellings on the cards and not the announcer's ability.
According to reports, the announcer was replaced once the graduates' last names starting with the letter "L" were being called, giving her an opportunity to apologize to the graduates. However, some individuals on social media were not as forgiving, criticizing the announcer and questioning her qualifications, despite no images of her being circulated.
Thomas Jefferson University has three more graduation ceremonies scheduled for May 21 and 22, and it is likely that they will take extra precautions to ensure that similar mishaps do not occur. The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of correctly pronouncing names, especially during such significant events.
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