THE UNIVERSITY of the Philippines Visayas conferred academic degrees on 470 undergraduate and graduate students during its 1st virtual commencement ceremony held last August 6.

UPV said the graduates were from the Class of 2020 and 2021.

“Because of the national lockdown in March last year that stretched to the month of May brought about by the pandemic, the university could not have its graduation rites. Because the pandemic is still ongoing, a virtual ceremony was the next best thing,” UPV said.

Out of the combined 470 graduates, three were magna cum laudes and 25 were cum laudes in 2020, while two were cum laudes for 2021.

In his speech, UPV Chancellor Dr. Clement Camposano reminded the students of their roles and responsibilities to society.

“The real Iskolar ng Bayan should therefore exert utmost effort to know the poor and the marginalized. Empathetically, by putting themselves in the latter’s shoes, and reflexively by becoming aware of their own biases and making a sincere and determined effort to interrogate and transcend them,” Camposano said.

“The Iskolar ng Bayan must abandon all claims to dictate what is good and just for the rest of society and engage those who are kept out of these walls in a genuine dialogue. Only then can they begin to understand what it means to be in the margins of society,” he added.

The graduates were from the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, College of Management, School of Technology, and the UPV Tacloban College.