Commencements During COVID

[natshar]

What are colleges doing for commencements? I know that they want to do something other than fully virtual but it isn't yet safe do a ceremony like before covid. So schools had to get creative. 

Some I found:


College 1: In-person but multiple smaller ceremonies by college instead of one big one. a limited number of guests per person and you must register them ahead of time. Masks must be worn and social distancing is encouraged and the seating is set up for distancing. The whole thing will be live-streamed and students can submit their name and picture to participate virtually instead if they want.

College 2: In-person but for graduates only. No guests allowed at all. All graduates who want to participate in person must register ahead of time and wear a mask during the ceramony. The whole thing will be live-streamed for the family. Students who want to participate but not in person can submit their names and pictures to have in the ceremony.

College 3: Two options. Students can attend one, both or neither. The first is a fully virtual graduation address with remarks from the president and others all video recorded. You just log on at a certain time and watch on the college youtube page. The second is an in-person graduation parade taking place outdoors on campus. Students must register ahead of time for this and caps and gowns are provided for free.

You guys know of any colleges (or high schools) doing something different for commencements?

[dfrecore]

Honestly, by the time we get to graduations, I'm thinking the country will be back into full swing, and there won't be a need for any of this. There will be a huge number of people who have been vaccinated, another large chunk who had Covid already, and ones that have the antibodies naturally.

[natshar]

Honestly, by the time we get to graduations, I'm thinking the country will be back into full swing, and there won't be a need for any of this.  There will be a huge number of people who have been vaccinated, another large chunk who had Covid already, and ones that have the antibodies naturally.

I don't know. College graduation is in like 3-4 weeks. That seems like a pretty quick timeline. Maybe next year's graduations will be more normal though.

[dfrecore]

Honestly, by the time we get to graduations, I'm thinking the country will be back into full swing, and there won't be a need for any of this.  There will be a huge number of people who have been vaccinated, another large chunk who had Covid already, and ones that have the antibodies naturally.

I don't know. College graduation is in like 3-4 weeks. That seems like a pretty quick timeline. Maybe next year's graduations will be more normal though.

The schools I'm more familiar with (like CA CSU's and UC's) are graduating in late May/early June.  The spring term didn't start until Feb 1 for many, they changed it to give everyone an extra long break at Christmas.  Quarter-based schools that started in September don't normally get out until June.

[LevelUP]

What are colleges doing for commencements? I know that they want to do something other than fully virtual but it isn't yet safe do a ceremony like before covid. So schools had to get creative. 

Some I found:


College 1: In-person but multiple smaller ceremonies by college instead of one big one. a limited number of guests per person and you must register them ahead of time. Masks must be worn and social distancing is encouraged and the seating is set up for distancing. The whole thing will be live-streamed and students can submit their name and picture to participate virtually instead if they want.

College 2: In-person but for graduates only. No guests allowed at all. All graduates who want to participate in person must register ahead of time and wear a mask during the ceramony. The whole thing will be live-streamed for the family. Students who want to participate but not in person can submit their names and pictures to have in the ceremony.

College 3: Two options. Students can attend one, both or neither. The first is a fully virtual graduation address with remarks from the president and others all video recorded. You just log on at a certain time and watch on the college youtube page. The second is an in-person graduation parade taking place outdoors on campus. Students must register ahead of time for this and caps and gowns are provided for free.

You guys know of any colleges (or high schools) doing something different for commencements?

If you do them outside with everyone wearing masks, that is pretty safe.  Social distance 3 feet is the current CDC recommendation with masks.

[natshar]

Honestly, by the time we get to graduations, I'm thinking the country will be back into full swing, and there won't be a need for any of this.  There will be a huge number of people who have been vaccinated, another large chunk who had Covid already, and ones that have the antibodies naturally.

I don't know. College graduation is in like 3-4 weeks. That seems like a pretty quick timeline. Maybe next year's graduations will be more normal though.

The schools I'm more familiar with (like CA CSU's and UC's) are graduating in late May/early June.  The spring term didn't start until Feb 1 for many, they changed it to give everyone an extra long break at Christmas.  Quarter-based schools that started in September don't normally get out until June.

I didn't think of that. I know the schools near me a lot are doing commencement the first week in May.

And I guess my other thought is even if it is safe enough or the state is open enough to do a traditional ceremony, the time to change plans to a new format might not be enough time or they just don't want to. A school 30 minutes near me is doing a fully virtual ceremony and faced complaints from students about it. Even though other schools are doing in-person graduations with restrictions (like the ones I mentioned above) they don't want to change it because that is what they planned for all school year and don't want to allocate more time, money or resources towards changing their plans.

[dfrecore]

Honestly, by the time we get to graduations, I'm thinking the country will be back into full swing, and there won't be a need for any of this.  There will be a huge number of people who have been vaccinated, another large chunk who had Covid already, and ones that have the antibodies naturally.

I don't know. College graduation is in like 3-4 weeks. That seems like a pretty quick timeline. Maybe next year's graduations will be more normal though.

The schools I'm more familiar with (like CA CSU's and UC's) are graduating in late May/early June.  The spring term didn't start until Feb 1 for many, they changed it to give everyone an extra long break at Christmas.  Quarter-based schools that started in September don't normally get out until June.

I didn't think of that. I know the schools near me a lot are doing commencement the first week in May.

And I guess my other thought is even if it is safe enough or the state is open enough to do a traditional ceremony, the time to change plans to a new format might not be enough time or they just don't want to. A school 30 minutes near me is doing a fully virtual ceremony and faced complaints from students about it. Even though other schools are doing in-person graduations with restrictions (like the ones I mentioned above) they don't want to change it because that is what they planned for all school year and don't want to allocate more time, money or resources towards changing their plans.

Well, my kid graduated from high school in 2020, and they managed to change the graduation ceremony they planned (for like the entirety of the existence of the school), and had a backup plan a week before graduation.  So if EVERY school in the US could figure out how to change from what they'd always done for like 100 years to something entirely new, I think that they could easily change BACK to what they've always done with very little notice.