Amid ever-changing COVID-19 guidelines, University staff have worked tirelessly to organize a safe and meaningful hybrid commencement for the Class of 2021.
There is a familiar rhythm to the annual commencement season at the University of Rochester.
November sees save-the-dates appearing in mailboxes. Each new calendar year means organizers begin convening regularly to settle ceremony logistics. Springtime has graduating students finishing their final projects and requirements. May brings the big day, complete with accompanying pomp and circumstance, as well as its celebratory aftermath.
Commencement 2021 Details
New York State guidelines may be updated before the University’s commencement ceremonies take place. Visit the official commencement website for the latest details and to
- See the up-to-date ceremony schedule
- Get answers to frequently asked questions, including about livestreaming and regalia
- Check out the #UR2021 Celebration Toolkit, so you can mark this special occasion with printable signs, digital backgrounds, and social media frames
But that rhythm was disrupted in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic upended even the best-laid plans, including for much-anticipated events like the University’s annual Commencement Weekend.
Christine Rovet, executive director of Event and Classroom Management (ECM), was in the middle of coordinating her fourth commencement ceremonies at Rochester when her team suddenly had to “completely switch gears,” she recalls. That meant converting the traditional on-campus commencement experience into a fully virtual one, complete with video remarks and online degree conferrals for each of the University’s main schools (and a good many individual departments)—all within a matter of weeks.
“It was a significant undertaking. Because of COVID, we had to do things for commencement that we’d never done before,” Rovet says. She didn’t know it then, but the experience would lay the groundwork for the University’s commencement a year later.
Milestone moments meet pandemic protocols
How do you organize commencement—a large-scale, milestone event that is loaded with expectations and emotions for its participants—amid the ever-changing (and sometimes conflicting) federal and state COVID-19 guidelines? Not to mention the added complications of life during a pandemic.
“We basically had to take what we already knew about commencement and apply a COVID filter to it,” Rovet says.
Theoretically, she and her team had more time to plan this year’s events, especially since the University has had regularly updated event guidelines in place, many based on New York state’s guidance about capacity limits and other safety protocols.
“However, we found out in the springtime that commencement didn’t fall under the state’s latest guidance for events,” says Rovet. In other words, it was now early March 2021, and the only state-approved commencement guidance was from June 2020, which allowed for up to 150 people to gather outdoors.
Later that same month, after consulting with the University’s Coronavirus University Restart Team, President Sarah Mangelsdorf announced that the 2021 commencement exercises would be held as hybrid events over the course of two weekends, May 14 to 16 and 20 to 23. The priority would be in-person participation for the current campus community of eligible graduates, faculty, and staff, with livestreaming and other online opportunities available for family and friends to join in the occasion.
Two potential scenarios turn into one action plan
At this point, “we were running two scenarios through our office,” says Rovet of ECM, which is housed in Arts, Sciences & Engineering (AS&E) but operates on a University-wide basis for commencement.
Of these two scenarios, the first accounted for all ceremonies being held outdoors, complete with tents, full AV setups, and contingency plans for inclement weather. The second scenario, meanwhile, factored in the possibility of holding indoor events.
On April 12, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced updated guidance for graduation and commencement ceremonies, crystallizing scenario two as the University’s first choice for a course of action. With about a week before the first ceremony, the plan is to have
- Multiple larger outdoor ceremonies on the Eastman Quadrangle for AS&E undergraduates and the Simon Business School
- Several smaller indoor ceremonies at Kodak Hall in Eastman Theatre for the Eastman School of Music, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, and Warner School of Education, as well as for master’s and doctoral candidates
- More than 40 indoor diploma ceremonies mainly across the River Campus for AS&E undergraduates
- Smaller platform parties at each ceremony
- Masking and physical distancing requirements remain in effect, indoors and out, throughout the ceremonies
- Protocols for proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test, depending on the ceremony and the participants
- Livestreaming of all events so family, friends, and other supporters can view remotely
- Recordings of the events made available afterward
A ‘memorable, heartfelt, and safe’ commencement during COVID-19 pandemic
In pre-COVID circumstances, you could expect to see upward of 7,000 people gathered on the Eastman Quad for the AS&E ceremony, with hundreds more filling Kodak Hall for each of the other school’s ceremonies.
“I’d love to think there will be that many people on campus next May, but who knows?” says Rovet.
Despite the uncertainties, a seasoned event organizer like Rovet can’t help but think ahead. For example, she fully expects this year’s enhanced digital aspects—such as live-captioning of the main ceremonies and having several camera operators walk among regalia-clad graduates as part of the live broadcast—to be fixtures of future commencement ceremonies.
And Rovet is quick to credit the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in making commencement happen. In addition to the ECM staff, she acknowledges the countless logistical contributions from the teams in Facilities and Services and Wilson Commons Student Activities, the dozens of department administrators, and the University’s longtime vendors. She also applauds Mangelsdorf, who has committed to attending each of this year’s dozen or so ceremonies on the Eastman Quad and at Kodak Hall.
Still, she recognizes the frustrations of loved ones who wish they, too, could attend commencement in person.
“People across the University are working hard to make the experience as memorable, heartfelt, and safe as possible for everyone involved given the current circumstances,” Rovet says. “I’m hopeful that even in a hybrid format, the feelings of joy and happiness inspired by this important occasion will come through.”
