Camilla Sumner
Guest Writer
As we acknowledge the one year mark of this global pandemic, I want to first recognize the deep loss our world has experienced due to COVID-19 and the many hardships people have experienced throughout this year. Though we have all suffered, I recognize that suffering hasn’t been equal. I also want to acknowledge PLU’s success in both being cautious with on campus activities and implementing strict social distancing protocol. Thank you to those members of the staff and faculty who continue to work hard to create a space for us to learn safely. Your hard work is appreciated.
While I understand and agree with many of these tactics, I strongly believe the decision to completely cancel an in-person commencement ceremony and replace it with a YouTube video falls short of our community’s creative potential. We can find a better solution. After reading the announcement that Commencement for class of 2020 and 2021 would be held online, I was immediately angry and hurt. My peers and I have spent the past four years at this university working diligently, and commencement has always been a way to celebrate such accomplishments.
We will never again sit in an Hauge classroom next to our peers and discuss readings with our professors, celebrate the spring by attending LollaPLUza, or perform in KHP to a live audience. Seniors lost their department banquets, senior competitions, performances, and in-person capstone presentations. I understand the necessity of cancelling these large in person activities last spring as our future looked uncertain and a vaccine was out of reach, but we must reassess the decision to cancel arguably the most important celebration of our college experience as we approach the light at the end of this dark tunnel.
As we move into Stage 4 on campus, I am asking administrators to reconsider cancelling any form of in-person celebration. Other schools in our region have found creative solutions that maintain safety while also celebrating their graduates in-person. The University of Puget Sound is holding two separate graduation ceremonies on May 16th—on campus and outside—while requiring students to wear masks and socially distance. Each graduate can invite two guests.
Whitman College is following the same protocol, and friends and family are invited to watch the live streamed event from the safety of their home. Whitworth is also following very similar guidelines. Reed College is requiring graduates to remain on campus from April 9th until the ceremony on May 17th. All faculty, staff, and students will be tested twice before the ceremonies.
A more unusual solution from Linfield University is their “Carmencement” where students may be accompanied by their household to drive through campus and stop at various photo opts. Graduates will sign up for specific time slots and will have the opportunity to walk across the stage with the small audience of their household at a distance. I propose we have smaller ceremonies by dividing the graduates by their colleges. It will allow us to thank our beloved professors and say goodbye to our classmates. These are just a few ideas that PLU must take into consideration.
Our students deserve to be celebrated. Those who have held jobs while balancing school, those who are first in their family to attend college, those who travelled here from another country, those who have been sitting in zoom classes for a year, those who have returned to school later in life, those who have served or will serve our country in the military, those who balanced studying with parenting.
A significant element of PLU’s mission is to care. After such a difficult year filled with loss and hardship, we need some way to celebrate and show that care—that we care about PLU and that PLU cares about us. Graduates of 2020 and 2021 need recognition and we feel that care from our University and community, and an in-person ceremony will do that. I ask that the PLU administration go back to the drawing board and find a better solution for us to celebrate.
