Faculty marshal and family are all Carolina
Jay Aikat, chief operating officer at RENCI and a research professor in the computer science department, led her first ceremonial procession for her son’s Class of 2020 graduation.
Jay Aikat’s first ceremony as the University’s faculty marshal was at her son’s Class of 2020 graduation on Oct. 10.
As faculty marshal, she leads the processions at Spring and Winter Commencement and University Day. This year brought an extra event: the Class of 2020’s ceremony, which had to be postponed to October 2021 because of the pandemic.
Faculty Marshal Jay Aikat and her son, Vikram. (Photo courtesy of Jay Aikat)
“This year was extra special for me. My son, Vikram, who is a Morehead-Cain Scholar, graduated in 2020,” she said. “My very first time as faculty marshal was in his Commencement ceremony. That was super special.”
A double major in computer science and quantitative biology, her son is a doctoral student at Duke University, though she made it clear that he bleeds Carolina blue.
“There’s a sense of pride,” she said of her family’s connections to the University. Aikat earned her doctorate in computer science from Carolina and is the chief operating officer at the Renaissance Computing Institute, or RENCI, and a research professor in the College of Arts & Sciences’ computer science department.
Her husband, Deb Aikat, is an associate professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media and their daughter, Divya, a first-year student, is a Chancellor’s Science Scholar double majoring in biostatistics and sociology.
Appointed faculty marshal by Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz in September 2021, Aikat assists the chancellor in planning some of the University’s most important events, the Commencement ceremonies and University Day, in addition to her role in the events. The rituals and regalia of Commencement have grown out of Carolina’s 227-year history and help mark the day as a milestone in the lives of those graduating.
On Sunday, donning her Carolina regalia, she will lead the platform party to the stage at Winter Commencement, carrying the bicentennial staff.
(Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)
The staff, commissioned for the University’s 1993 bicentennial celebration by the late John Sanders, professor emeritus and former director of the UNC Institute of Government, and his wife, Ann Beal Sanders, was modeled by sculptor Pete Hinton. It consists of a sterling silver three-inch-high replica of the Old Well mounted on a turned and tapered oak shaft. The shaft was made from timber salvaged from the 1822 section of Old West residence hall during its 1991-1993 renovation.
When it’s not being used in a ceremony, the mace — part of the North Carolina Collection — is stored in Wilson Library.
Prior to the ceremonies, Aikat said she checks out the mace and its 15-pound base from the library. To make it easier to transport, the staff comes apart and the base fits into a rolling suitcase.
To prepare for her first procession, Aikat said she watched a video of a previous Commencement ceremony to observe her predecessor, Patricia Parker, director of the Institute of the Arts and Humanities.
Aikat says the Commencement ceremony is planned down to the minute, and she is appreciative of the opportunity to get a glimpse of the tremendous work that goes into it.
“You’re right up front. You don’t want to trip and fall. It’s fun,” she said, adding she’s proud to lead the procession in her Carolina regalia.
Faculty Marshal Jay Aikat also got a photo with 2020 Commencement speaker and former Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams. (Photo courtesy of Jay Aikat)
