On Apr. 24, President Martha Burger announced an honorary virtual commencement ceremony will take place on May 9.
Class of 2020 students voted in a virtual town hall meeting to have a virtual graduation ceremony in addition to a postponed in-person ceremony after the COVID-19 pandemic is resolved.
“Our virtual ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. Central Time on Saturday, May 9,” Burger wrote in an email to the campus community.
Burger also said she was thankful for the Commencement Working Group and their help with this decision.
“Our Commencement Working Group, comprised of student, faculty and staff representatives and led by Provost George Sims, has been hard at work to recommend a date for a postponed in-person ceremony and to plan a virtual celebration on May 9, which was our original date for commencement,” Burger wrote.
George Sims, Interim Provost, said the working group consists of around thirteen to fourteen people, six of which are undergraduates.
Seniors Jay Williams, Victoria Mayhall, Ellen Roth, and Ally Zahringer were asked to serve on the commencement task force, as well as law school seniors Abigail Hood and Jade Pebworth.
Victoria Mayhall, Spanish and political science senior, said the working group wanted to make sure students’ voices were represented in the decision-making process.
“The goal of the task force was to submit recommendations to President Burger about when commencement would be and what it would look like,” Mayhall said.
The first working group meeting was Apr. 2.
Ally Zahringer, music senior, said the working group discussed at the meeting how they wanted to receive feedback from the entire senior class.
“Within the first ten minutes, everyone kind of brought up the idea of doing a town hall meeting or sending out a poll, or something so that everybody’s feedback was included,” Zahringer said.
The working group conducted two town hall meetings via zoom that the entire senior class was encouraged to attend.
Three potential dates for commencement were presented at the first town hall meeting: Sept. 5, Oct. 31, and Dec. 19.
Burger has not yet said which date the in-person commencement will take place on.
“The postponed in-person commencement date for Fall 2020 will be determined soon,” Burger said via email.
Jay Williams, religion senior, said September will most likely be the chosen date since it got the most votes at the last town hall meeting.
“It seems like the sooner the better, so planning in September looks more likely than later on in the year,” Williams said.
Sims said the working group needed to make a decision about the date soon due to how much planning goes into commencement.
“Usually it takes the whole Spring semester to get everything lined up,” Sims said.
Sims also said the other schools and colleges will start planning their awards ceremonies once commencement has a solidified date.
“Once we get a date for the commencement, then we will be basically asking the schools with that date in mind to plan whatever student awards and recognitions that they usually do,” Sims said.
Williams said students shouldn’t have to worry about paying for regalia if they are unable to make it to the rescheduled commencement.
“You don’t pay for it until you get it, so whenever you get it you can then pay for it, or if you aren’t going to be able to make it to graduation, you just simply don’t pick it up, or if you already have it, I guess you can return it,” Williams said.
Mayhall said she’s happy the university administration is working hard to give this year’s senior class a commencement ceremony.
“They’re putting a lot of thought and effort into making sure that this group of seniors, even though we didn’t get our normal graduation in May, we’re still going to be celebrated,” Mayhall said.
Leave a Reply