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all who nevah a wash hands an bade are forced to now...**chukkle*
Congrats, Class of Purell
City universities offer graduates hand sanitizer with their diplomas
“I can see why they do it — the highly concentrated nature of the event and then everyone is dispersing. Still, it was kind of funny. It combined the joy of graduation ... and swine flu.” Pyfer
Congratulations Class of 2009, here’s your diploma … and hand sanitizer.
Concerns over swine flu have added a new element to the pomp and circumstance at many of New York’s colleges, marking this year’s graduating class as the Purell generation.
Hand sanitizer dispensers were available at the staircases leading to the stage during St. John’s University’s graduation this past Sunday.
The New School already added hand sanitizers in its lobbies and will have extra bottles around during Friday’s commencement. After the graduation ceremonies for Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health yesterday a bottle was on a table in the reception area.
“I stuck out my hand for a high-five and I got juiced with sanitizer,” said Lynn Pyfer, who graduated last Friday from NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
The dispenser on the podium next to Dean Ellen Schall, who shook hands or hugged every Wagner grad, went mostly unused. But another staffer waiting in the wings offstage squirted Pyfer and other students after their handshakes and photos. Most could be seen descending the stage’s stairs with smiles while rubbing their hands.
“I can see why they do it — the highly concentrated nature of the event and then everyone is dispersing,” Pyfer said. “Still, it was kind of funny. It combined the joy of graduation, all the people coming to town and swine flu.”