You got this!
Due to continued precautions concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, the UFV Fall 2020 semester will look a little different. With the move to primarily online education, UFV has had to adapt their Invocation Ceremony, New Student Orientation (NSO), and Welcome Weeks to the new online format as well.
UFV’s virtual Invocation Ceremony premièred on the ufvnso YouTube channel at 7:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to an audience of approximately 250 viewers. This was a chance for students, both new and returning, to see a snapshot of the UFV community, as well as to interact with the live chat as the video premièred. The première also included a number of giveaways, which gave students the opportunity to win “Cascade Cash,” money that can be used to buy food and textbooks.
The ceremony offered a number of welcomes and information from students, staff, and UFV alumni. Of note was the announcement of the new Student Union Society (SUS) website and the online orientation which can be accessed via Blackboard.
The Invocation Ceremony featured introductions from the deans of each of UFV’s faculties and an address from Dr. Joanne MacLean, UFV’s president. There were also appearances by a number of other staff, students — including SUS president Jessica Levesque — and UFV alumni, such as the designer of the NSO emblem, Chantelle Trainor-Matties. Other speakers of note included Neeraj Kumar, who runs a YouTube channel where he discusses being a UFV student, amongst other things; Paul Okano, who is president of the Japanese Culture Club; and Cambree Lovesy, who performed her original song “Bright.”
The première-based format offered UFV a unique opportunity to put together a one-of-a-kind ceremony. While other avenues of online distribution, such as a live stream, would have been an option and offered an immediacy to what was going on and what viewers were seeing, the premade video offered full closed captioning and the chance to see far more of the UFV community. At a little under 22 minutes in length, it is a relatively quick watch and information is packed into that limited time. In addition, the video remains accessible and can be watched for anyone who was not able to attend the première.
If there is one issue with the video, it is the inclusion of the audio of a live performance of Lovesy’s song with lyrics overtop of a section of video where people are introducing themselves. While the song is enjoyable, it is distracting to have it playing while trying to listen to a number of introductions in rapid succession, even with the closed captioning. An easy solution to this problem would be to play a purely instrumental version of the song, which would also fit in with the overall background ambiance much better.
Overall, UFV’s Invocation Ceremony video is high quality and accessible. It offers a chance for new and returning students to see the support network UFV provides and was an inspiring beginning to a semester that may be a little different.
Graphic: Created by Chantelle Trainor-Matties
