Fordham Announces Commencement Plans for Class of 2020
Using similar safety measures to those for the Class of 2021’s graduation, Fordham will hold in-person ceremonies in June
The commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2020 will take place at Rose Hill on June 5 and 6.
May 5, 2021
Fordham announced that the Class of 2020 will celebrate its in-person commencement ceremonies on June 5 and June 6 in an email from the Office of the President sent on May 5.
When on-campus operations halted in March 2020, Fordham promised the Class of 2020 that they would have an in-person graduation ceremony at a later date. After Fordham announced that the Class of 2021 will have in-person commencement ceremonies on Feb. 12, many graduates from the Class of 2020 wondered when their ceremony would be.
“As promised, we are now at a moment when we can celebrate your own graduation—as you rightly deserve—at our Rose Hill campus,” the email from University President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., stated.
The university used the same safety model that it developed for the Class of 2021 graduation to plan for the Class of 2020, according to the email. Students will be allowed to bring two guests with them to the ceremony.
The ceremonies for graduates of Fordham College at Lincoln and the Gabelli School of Business will take place on Saturday, June 5, and the ceremony for Fordham College at Rose Hill graduates is expected to take place on Sunday, June 6.
“I cannot tell you how excited we are to welcome you home and to have a chance to celebrate you and your many achievements with a proper in-person Commencement ceremony,” McShane said.
Information regarding registration and ticketing will be shared by the university next week.
a 2020 ram • May 10, 2021 at 10:27 am
Unsure how else to voice my opinion, it would be fantastic if The Observer reached out to members of the Class of 2020 for a piece surrounding this announcement. We are disappointed in the University for throwing together this ceremony at the absolute last minute and want that to be known. Yes, they are keeping their promise to give us a graduation, but they’re doing it in a way that feels…wrong. The main issue? They didn’t ask us.
While it’s great news our class is getting a Commencement ceremony, the Class of 2020 is feeling largely disgruntled at the hastiness of this announcement, which leaves very little room for students outside of the tri-state area to even attend. Is this really a “proper in-person Commencement ceremony” we “rightly deserve,” if it’s actually inaccessible to most of the Class of 2020, and if those who can attend have to move heaven and earth to do so at such short notice? It feels disrespectful, honestly a bit elitist to assume people can make the travel/accommodation arrangements within the month, and insensitive to the fact that Covid is still a reality and many don’t yet have access to their first vaccine. After waiting more than a year, a lot of us are left wondering why the sudden rush, when we would much rather have something of our own that doesn’t feel like a Class of 2021 Commencement afterparty. Holding the ceremony even a little later in summer, perhaps in August, would be preferred to this. There are theories that the decision to hold the ceremony so soon and give us a one-month notice on our Commencement was intentional on behalf of Fr. McShane and the Commencement team to keep numbers down, perhaps for Covid reasons and also to keep things low-budget. Either way, this ceremony is a celebration exclusive only to those who have the financial means to drop everything and attend it, which is not fair. It seems like a quick fix simply to get our class out of their hair and off their list of things to address, and a lot of people are not happy. It hurts that with a lot of our classmates unable to attend due to their decision, we won’t get the closure with our dear friends that we really deserve.