Outrage as NUIG moves graduations back five days due to Hurricane Ophelia
NUI Galway will be closed tomorrow due to the effects of Hurricane Ophelia, writes .
The university has rescheduled tomorrow's graduation ceremonies due to the weather warnings.
The ceremonies will now take place five days later on Saturday, October 21.
NUIG has announced that staff and students are not expected to attend the university tomorrow.
The announcement came at approximately 7.20pm on Facebook and has been met with mixed reactions.
While the move comes from growing safety concerns and has been widely met with relief from the students, those expecting to attend graduation ceremonies tomorrow have had negative reactions.
"This is an absolute joke. How am I meant to reschedule my plans with 5 days notice? I work on weekends and I mightn't even be able to attend my own grad. Absolute disgrace," one commenter wrote.
"It's ridiculously short noticed [sic] to expect people to travel over or book work off. Completely unprofessional and ridiculous.
"You left it too late in the day to notify us past the time you said you would announce what's to happen. Will there be reimbursements on robes etc?", said another.
"This is disgraceful. My sister was supposed to be graduating tomorrow and all family had made arrangements for months to be there. You can't just reschedule for five days time, no one can reorganise their schedules in that short amount of time," added a 'devastated' commenter.
Another student claimed her whole family will now miss her graduation due to the changes, while another said they would no longer be able to attend themselves.
"As this is an ongoing weather event, the University did not wish to take the exceptional step to reschedule conferring until evening national and international forecasts were available," the university said.
A 'skeleton staff' will be on campus tomorrow morning to give advice and guidance to any student who did not receive the late announcement.
"The University apologises for the inconvenience caused. However the safety of students, staff and visitors to the campus is paramount. Supports will be put in place for students living in campus residences.
"It is anticipated that the University will resume normal business on Tuesday and any changes will be posted to the website and social channels," it said.
