UA cancels graduation ceremony; ASU holds off on making decision
Mar 20, 2020, 6:00 PM | Updated: 8:14 pm
(Photo by JECO/Creative Commons)
PHOENIX — The University of Arizona announced Friday it has canceled its graduation ceremonies due to the coronavirus.
“My biggest regret for the Class of 2020 is that you didn’t get to enjoy these final weeks of being a student and your final celebration with your classmates,” UArizona president Robert C. Robbins said in a statement.
The university is planning an “alternate graduation experience” in place of the ceremony scheduled for May 15 and will give updates as early as March 27, according to the statement.
Graduating students will also be invited to walk during a future ceremony in either December 2020 or May 2021.
Arizona State University has yet to make a decision regarding its commencement scheduled for May 11, president Michael Crow told 92.3 FM KTAR News on Friday afternoon.
“We’re not worrying about what we’re not going to be doing two months from now,” Crow said. “Right now, what we’re worrying about is that we have 165,000 online learners, all the way down to kindergarten, all the way into graduate school.”
He added that ASU is about to start a COVID-19 test in a facility that uses robots and launched its ASUForYou website to give students as young as seventh grade, teachers and adults of all ages an education platform.
“Graduation is two months from now, we’ll worry about that later,” Crow said.
Both schools have moved all classes to online platforms and ended in-person sessions.