The coronavirus has led Dominican University to cancel 2020’s in-person commencement ceremony and the 2021 ceremony is now in jeopardy, leaving students to feel disappointed.
Dominican University did review other options to host a graduation in 2020. “We know many institutions canceled their ceremony or moved to a virtual one. We wanted to still provide an in-person experience so that is why we postponed,” according to Norah Collins Pienta the Dean of Students and part of the Commencement Planning Team at Dominican University.
Collins Pienta believes that Dominican could look at various ways to try to include all of the graduation events into virtual formats. The university would need to explore how to create these special moments for the students and how they may need to alter to accommodate a virtual format.
Dominican University hosted a virtual Conferral of Degrees ceremony that was posted on social media and shared with all Class of 2020 graduates to celebrate and recognize their success.
Not being able to walk across the stage “sort of downplayed the huge milestone that I achieved which was being the first generation in my family to receive a college diploma,” said Vicky Mejia, a communication studies major from Dominican University’s class of 2020.
Mejia explained that she and her family were excited to attend the graduation and see her walk across the stage, and disappointed when it was first postponed to Labor Day and later canceled.
The class of 2020 also had to finish their college career from home after coronavirus hit in March.
“This has made many things uncertain,” Mejia said. “It makes me think about other experiences and opportunities I may miss out on due to the pandemic,” she said.
Ignacio Hernandez is set to graduate in 2021, but said he does not worry about an in-person ceremony.
“I will still be a college graduate, so Dominican can wait on having a ceremony or never do it and just send the diploma in the mail,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez explained that the safety of his other classmates and families are very important to him. Older people and people with underlying conditions are more likely to contract the coronavirus, so Hernandez does not believe that an in-person graduation would be the best decision.
Hernandez will know that he completed his college career and he is proud to accomplish that. He believes that every graduate should be proud of themselves for knowing that they completed college.
There is still a big question mark by the 2021 ceremony. Dominican is “continuing to monitor the State of Illinois guidance regarding gatherings to determine if we are able to host our traditional ceremonies in-person,” according to Collins Pienta. An in-person commencement would bring together 475 undergraduates and 250 graduate students and their friends and family members.
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