Sarah Watkins
Reporter
President Nora Miller announces that seniors should expect a graduation ceremony to be held in April for the senior class of Spring 2021. The seniors can look forward to graduation with safety precautions.
“We will have in-person management,” President Miller said. “It will look a little different. We are planning to do a virtual component which will be the graduation speeches.”
President Miller plans to send links where people can watch the speeches if they cannot make it to graduation or would feel safer at home. The ceremony will be a 6-part ceremony.
Each department will graduate one at a time. During this swap, a crew will come in and clean before sending the following department in. President Miller and the staff have been thinking about in-person graduation since the last graduation ceremony, held virtually.
“We looked at doing an outdoor celebration, but we don’t have a good place for it,” said President Miller. “So, we talked to Columbus school district about perhaps using their football stadium, but we didn’t like the idea of not having it on our campus.”
After looking at the different possibilities, President Miller and staff decided the best thing to do would be to have the ceremony on campus but make it into a smaller ceremony.
“The six different ceremonies will go by departments,” said President Miller. “The nursing student will have two different ceremonies.”
The graduation ceremony will be happening at Rent Auditorium on the university’s campus.
Seating is limited for these ceremonies. Each senior can expect three guest tickets, and a mask must be worn. Seats will be marked off or roped off so distance can be maintained.
President Miller is hoping this graduation will be a normal ceremony for the seniors in times that are not so normal. One thing the graduation class can expect is there will be no handshaking while getting their diploma.
As of right now, President Miller thinks graduation practice will not be held.
“We will video some instruction for seniors to watch, so they will know what to expect,” said President Miller.
For the graduated class of 2020, President Miller mentioned that there would be a redo ceremony for those who want to take part in it, but that will be held later in the summer.
The W has not had a positive case of COVID-19 in 3 weeks. President Miller is looking forward to an in-person ceremony and hopes the graduating class of 2021 is looking forward to the in-person graduation in April.