When it was time for graduates of Thomas Jefferson University's College of Nursing to walk the stage at Thursday's commencement, some of them had puzzled looks on their faces. The presenter at the ceremony, who was tasked with reading hundreds of names, struggled mightily — and at times, comically — with her pronunciation.
Even "Thomas," which is part of the school's name, tripped up the presenter.
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"Ta-moo-may ..." she began to say for nursing grad Thomas Michael Canevari Jr., who could then be heard shouting, "Thomas," to correct her. The presenter quickly repeated his name the right way, as if hearing it for the first time, and didn't bother to read his last name at that point in the litany of errors.
A clip of the butchered pronunciations has been viewed more than 7.4 million times on TikTok. Commenters wondered why seemingly basic names were too difficult for the presenter to get right. In the viral video, people watching a stream of the commencement can barely contain their laughter when the name "Elizabeth" is pronounced "Lee Zubeth." And for the name "Jessica," the presenter says "Jayseecu" — just one of several terrible misfires.
"This can't be real omg," one commenter wrote.
@colleenb415Please tell me how one can be allowed to speak at college commencement and mess up that badly 🫠😬
♬ original sound - Col
"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," a university spokesperson said Friday, declining to name the presenter.
The university said the errors occurred "due to the way phonetic spellings were presented on the speaker’s cards."
One person who attended the commencement to see his girlfriend graduate explained what went wrong in more detail in a comment on Reddit.
"Basically, each of the graduates was given a sheet of paper with a phonetic spelling of their names printed on it, which is what the guy on the right is taking and scanning with each passing graduate," the commenter said. "He would then pass that to the speaker, who — instead of reading the standard names from the book in front of her (or the top of the paper with the phonetic spelling), was ONLY reading the phonetic spelling without even looking at how they’re spelled normally."
At one point during the ceremony, the presenter acknowledged that she had been relying on the phonetic spellings, not the book of graduates' names, and apologized for all of the mistakes she'd made.
"My apologies for the phonetic spelling or pronunciation of the names that (were) on the card," the announcer said. "I would have done better just reading from the book. My apologies, graduates."
For some who watched the video, the phonetic explanation didn't seem like a good enough justification for some of the wildly mispronounced names. A university stream of the full commencement strangely shows that in some cases — including with fairly difficult names — the presenter might have no problem at all before promptly messing up a much simpler name.
"Everyone keeps saying it’s phonetic spelling but THAT STILL LITERALLY DOESNT MAKE SENSE," one commenter wrote.
Some said they would be angry to spend a fortune on tuition and dedicate years of hard work just to have this type of fiasco occur during a commencement. Others said it brought humor to what usually ends up being a boring and unmemorable slog.
"I could have watched her read nonsense names for hours," said the Reddit user who was at the commencement.
The university acknowledged that all graduates deserved to have their names read properly.
"This unfortunate error does not reflect the immense respect we have for our graduates and the value we place on their hard-earned accomplishments," the spokesperson said.