As yet another spring semester comes to a close, many seniors at Capital University are starting to become more excited and curious about the upcoming graduation in May.
This feeling gives seniors a sense of déjà vu, as this is the same exact feeling that they felt this time last year, before the world changed.
Due to COVID-19, everything was shut down in March. As a result, a graduation commencement for the class of 2020 did not take place. While they did receive their diplomas, there was no farewell, no walking across the stage, no closure to bring their college career to an end.
However, there are plans to make up for that and to give the class of 2021 a proper graduation ceremony as well.
The class of 2021 and 2020 will both have ceremonies including multiple sessions on May 8 and 9th respectively. Both classes will hold the first session at 9 a.m. and rotate in and out until 6 p.m.
It will also have a much different atmosphere and be structured quite differently than graduation ceremonies in years past.
Era McMahon, the director of meeting and event services said, “This is much more informal [than commencement ceremonies in years past], where we have maximum seating for about 100 to 150 graduates and two of their guests and no more.”
There will be however many separate ceremonies on each day and each will take about an hour.
There will be a short presentation and then the graduates will line up, get their names called off per usual, and receive their diploma covers, since their actual diplomas will be received in the mail.
Next, they will take pictures and then that group will leave so the area can get cleaned up and ready for the next session.
Something that has come up is the ability to order caps and gowns for the ceremony. Those can now be ordered through the bookstore and through this link https://www.capital.edu/news-and-events/annual-events/commencement/#registration.
While this yeast graduation ceremony is absolutely different, there is at least one upside: Students can now sit where they want to, meaning with friends.
McMahon said, “We really want to make sure that things are very special for both classes, but we are working to make it more intimate, a little bit more personable.”
Meaning that if you have some incredibly close, life long friends that you met during welcome weekend, you can sign up for a session together and then sit together during the ceremony.
Something else that is new this year is the extensive use of tickets. Based on when they sign up, guests will each get a ticket to an assigned seat. All of the seats will be in blocks of two chairs, for each of the two guests.
Additionally, there are plans to make the ceremony for the class of 2020 a bit more personal and close because there will more than likely be even less graduates there than at the 2021 ceremony. This is because the graduates from that class have moved and have full time jobs by this point.
More details will be available closer to the time of the ceremonies.
Featured image by Carter Campbell
