The 39th Rector of Queen’s University, Niki Boytchuk-Hale, was robed at the first convocation of the season on May 24.
Boytchuk-Hale’s robing was the first since the pandemic, and she was eager to carry on this decades-old tradition. The tradition entails the newly elected Rector being officially robed by the current President of the AMS and President of the Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS).
The convocation, held for students graduating from the Queen’s School of Medicine with a Doctor of Medicine and from the Smith School of Business with a Master of Business Administration Americas, saw Boytchuk-Hale robed by Manal Shah, Director of Marketing at the AMS and proxy for AMS President Owen Rocchi, and Emils Matiss, SGPS president.
“When [the graduates] were coming through and shaking my hand and I was saying congratulations to them, they were also saying congratulations back, so it was very, very meaningful,” Boytchuk-Hale said.
Of all Canadian universities, Queen’s is the only one with a Rector. Since 1969, students have consistently held the position of Rector after successfully pressuring the incumbent to resign, ensuring continuous student representation in the role.
“[The robing ceremony] was really meaningful because they have a representative—typically an executive from the AMS and the SGPS—to robe me on behalf of the student body, because I was elected by students to serve in that role,” Boytchuk-Hale said.
The Rector will be attending six more convocations this season to congratulate incoming graduates alongside Chancellor Murray Sinclair and Principal Patrick Deane.
—With files from Allie Moustakis
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