Saturday, July 05, 2008 :: 07:08

Office of Student Services

Convocation Policies

 Convocation Policies [PDF]

Policy for "Walking" at Convocation

Background: Each year, about 1-4 students who have not yet met the graduation requirements petition CSPE II to participate in the convocation ceremony as if they are graduating with their class. These students will not actually receive a diploma since they have not yet met the graduation requirements. This is commonly called being permitted to “walk” at graduation. In the past, no guidelines existed for evaluating student requests to participate in the convocation. Some students who had walked at convocation never graduated.

Philosophy: Walking at convocation implies successful completion of the medical school curriculum. Students who request special permission to participate tend to fall into two categories. Some students may be lacking grades for courses or examinations already completed, require an extra month or two to finish a research requirement, or will not complete a rotation before the date of graduation. A second group of students have had ongoing academic difficulty and have been unable to meet their requirements because they have had to repeat blocks, rotations or examinations, or there has been a pattern of delay in meeting requirements. In deciding if a student who has not yet met the graduation requirements should be allowed to participate in the convocation it may be appropriate to distinguish between these student groups. Students likely to complete the requirements in a timely fashion, shortly after the actual date of the convocation, should be allowed to participate in convocation. Students who may not be able to meet the graduation requirements in a timely manner or who may not ever meet the requirements should not be permitted to participate in convocation.

Policy for participation in convocation

  1. Students must be able to successfully complete all requirements for graduation by UNM’s mid-August graduation date (about 3 months after the UNM SOM convocation ceremony).
  2. Both steps of USMLE must have a passing score posted by the end of April (Step 1, Step 2CK - Clinical Knowledge, and Step 2CS - Clinical Skills).
  3. Academic standing is solid with no remaining academic remediation still to be completed.

The Hooding Ceremony

Background: The policy for hooding graduates at convocation has been to allow any individual with a doctoral degree, e.g., JD, PhD, MD, to hood the graduate. The following justification is in the policy: “The hooding ceremony is part of the academic process of conferring the doctoral degree.” Students are given the opportunity to find a “hooder” and if they don’t specify an individual, then the clinical Khatali award winner hoods them. In years past, students, representing a graduating class, requested that the students be allowed to choose a “hooder” with no restrictions about degrees. They felt that family members or those close to them who had supported them in medical school should be able to hood them. It was pointed out that the requirement for an individual with a higher degree might be seen as discriminatory by students who don’t have a family member with an advanced degree.

Philosophy: Meaning of the hooding ceremony: Transition from student to physician, an induction into the profession of medicine by those who were mentors for the student, not necessarily those who emotionally supported them. The value of recognizing those who emotionally supported students was also emphasized. At most institutions, a single member of the faculty hoods all graduates. At some institutions, students may choose a member of the faculty or an MD to hood them.

Policy

Any individual with a doctoral degree: MD, PhD, PharmD, JD, DVM will be eligible to hood the medical student graduates at convocation.