Following Chancellor Andrew Martin’s decision to cancel the May 15 commencement ceremony for the class of 2020, many graduating seniors are searching for closure.

Photo by Grace Bruton

Martin cited guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the state of Missouri regarding large gatherings, as well as the need to “flatten the curve” when explaining the decision to cancel commencement to the University community in a video message, March 16.

Many seniors said that they understand holding an in-person ceremony would be irresponsible due to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, but nonetheless felt disheartened by the news that many will be unable to officially say goodbye to their friends of the last four years.

“I know in the grand scope of things it is silly, but I’ve envisioned graduation pictures for years: standing in front of Brookings [Hall]; leaving the place I fell in love with while wearing my graduation gown and cords while celebrating with those closest to me,” senior Megan Schulman said. “Then, abruptly, it was taken away from me in that message. I probably cried for an hour, and even as the days pass it still doesn’t feel real.”

For others, the cancellation of commencement only served to emphasize the fact that they would be losing two months of time to connect with their friends before leaving college.

“I was disappointed, but having time cut short with friends was definitely the more crushing blow for me, so losing the ceremony itself was not as significant as it was for others,” senior Sean McMahon wrote in a statement to Student Life.

For senior Morgan Dunstan, the graduation ceremony presented an opportunity to share her life at the University with her family, which she will now be unable to do.

“It was really heartbreaking initially,” Dunstan said. “And the more that I’ve gotten to know Wash. U. as a school, I just was looking forward to wearing all of my cords and showing my dad, who is 83 and has never visited me here and only knows of Wash. U. [through] the stories I tell him.”

The fact that the cancellation was announced over spring break, when many seniors were not present on campus, caused additional confusion.

“[The timing of the announcement] didn’t help with a lot of people at Wash. U. because so many people didn’t get to say goodbye to people that they didn’t know they weren’t going to see again,” senior Noah Trevino said. “They didn’t know what they were going to do with all their stuff on campus…he circumstances just made it a lot more difficult, which I think kind of got an even more emotional response from people, whether that be anger, sadness, frustration.”

Soon after the announcement, these feelings of anger and frustration prompted a student-led petition for the administration to formally postpone commencement and guarantee that a ceremony would be performed at a later date.

Dunstan, who created the postponement petition, decided to do so because she sensed a strong sense of urgency from the greater student body for some type of ceremony.

“[The petition] got over 1,000 signatures in less than 12 hours,” Dunstan said. “Even after I closed the petition, I got emails from people asking if they could still sign it…Just the fact that people felt so strongly, I feel like the fervency of their response was really just testimony towards the community’s commitment to see it happen.”

The petition also criticized the lack of student input into the decision to cancel graduation, which led some students to feel ignored.

“It was incredibly jarring to hear that we would be denied the ceremony that we have wrestled toward for our entire academic careers,” the petition reads. “Having no input on the situation has left many of us with feelings of helpless frustration.”

In order to address these concerns, Martin reassured graduating students and their families that the administration would do its best to arrange an in-person ceremony at some point, but said that uncertainty about the future of the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to commit to a concrete date or format.

“This does not mean there will not be a commencement for the class of 2020 at another time, Martin wrote in a statement to Student Life. “I’m optimistic that this will include an in-person ceremony and celebration when it is safe to do so. It’s impossible at this point to know when that might be, or any other details.”

The idea of a postponed commencement ceremony could potentially provide closure for some graduating seniors, but some concerns about equity have been raised.

“It would be great to have a postponed graduation, but what if there’s a kid who can’t afford to come and they could have done it when it was here on a scheduled time?” Trevino said. “Now that it’s at this later date, maybe they’re working, maybe they are in grad school or med school, maybe they can’t afford to come. It’s kind of like a ‘greatest good for the greatest number of people’ scenario.”

In order to improve accessibility for all members of the University community, Dunstan hopes to have a conversation with administrators about having the University provide funding to allow students who may not be able to afford to attend the ceremony to do so. Additionally, Dunstan suggested creating a fund where students can make donations in order to help their peers afford to come to commencement.

“I think that’s a good model,” Dunstan said. “Maybe doing something like that where we all donate in some way to make sure that for people who cannot themselves do it, like the effects are mitigated in some way.”

Regardless of whether or not a physical ceremony ends up occuring, McMahon plans to celebrate his time at the University by remembering the important relationships that he built over the last four years.

“So much of the meaning of graduation lies not in the ceremony but in the chance to celebrate with loved ones,” McMahon wrote. “In these times of necessary isolation, I think focusing on these bonds will help us weather the storm until, hopefully, we are reunited for the ceremony toward which so many have worked so hard.”