Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia issued a statement following backlash sparked by a graduation announcer who repeatedly butchered the names of graduating students at its commencement ceremony.
A viral TikTok video posted by @colleenb415 showed the Jefferson College of Nursing’s graduation on a TV monitor with an off-screen announcer who struggled to pronounce the names of graduating nursing students.
The expressions of the misidentified students clearly showed their confusion.
Viewers watching the clip hilariously responded every time the announcer bungled student names.
For example, Victoria Elizabeth Bruce sounded more like "Victoria Lee Zubenbraus."
Graduate Sarah Virginia Brennan didn't step up to receive her diploma, but a "Psyeerah Jeanjun Breenun" apparently did.
Molly Elizabeth Camp walked off the podium as "Molleena Zabeth Cahm." These were just a handful of the names the announcer completely mangled.
Even the name Thomas, which shares its name with the university, was egregiously mispronounced as "Tom-moo-may."
The TikToker captioned the awkward clip with:
"Please tell me how one can be allowed to speak at college commencement and mess up that badly 🫠😬"
You can watch the video here.
The clip was viewed over 10 million times.
The comments in the post were flooded with gobsmacked TikTokers who had questions.
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After Thomas Jefferson Uni found itself in hot water, they issued a statement of apology explaining the debacle, chalking it up to "the way phonetic spellings were presented on the speaker’s cards."
The university also noted the announcer apologized during the commencement ceremony.
The @JeffersonUniv's regretful post on X (formerly Twitter) read:
"The leadership and faculty of Thomas Jefferson University extend our sincerest apologies for the mispronunciations of the names of several of our graduating nursing students during our recent commencement ceremony."
They noted that the celebration honoring the achievements of the individual students and graduates deserves to "have their name honored correctly" during the momentous occasion.
@JeffersonUni/X
They concluded with:
“This unfortunate error does not reflect the immense respect we have for our graduates and the value we place on their hard-earned accomplishments."
Social media users struggled to accept or make sense of the apology on behalf of the students.
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Congratulations to the graduating class of 2024.
May you each be recognized accurately for all of your future accomplishments moving forward.
@SecretaryBurgum/X
@Doug Ellin/X
@evanrachelwood/Instagram