Last spring, the coronavirus pandemic postponed, canceled, rescheduled or altered the format of graduation ceremonies across the region – and nation.
One year later, Chattanooga colleges are finalizing new ceremonies to celebrate graduates while still adhering to pandemic safety measures.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has nine ceremonies planned for April 21-25, where undergraduate students can sign up for the time slot they prefer. The model for the spring ceremony came from the winter commencement, which was held on Chamberlain Field, and winter commencement was planned as a response to the student feedback on the school’s virtual ceremony last August.
This spring, about 200 graduates with up to four guests per graduate can be part of each ceremony at McKenzie Arena.
“One of the bits of feedback we got from the students is they wanted to be able to share the experience at least with a limited number of guests and so with the outside venue, we didn’t think we’d be able to have as much control over the number of guests and/or the guests’ behavior,” said UTC provost Jerold Hale. “We knew from basketball season and some other things that if we did them indoors at McKenzie Arena, we could still do it in a way that would be safe, that would allow us to have social distancing, that would allow us to enforce mask protocols that we have for the campus.”