PASADENA >> At first, it seemed like a victory for Caltech students and parents seeking more of a traditional graduation ceremony this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic that has defined so much of life appears to be easing.
Nayla Abney, a senior chemical engineering student, read the headline posted Friday, April 30, on a new statement from the school: “In-person Commencement Celebration for the 2021 Graduates.”
But as Abney read on, the realization crept in. No mention of a walk across a stage for Abney and up to 300 fellow students at the elite school. No mention of loved ones in an in-person audience.
Instead, the university — long concerned about the possibility of “a large transmission event” — is planning “the screening of a virtual ceremony that marks this momentous occasion in the company of their peers,” said President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, Provost David A. Tirrell, and Vice President of Student Affairs Kevin M. Gilmartin in their letter to the campus.
Open to graduating students only, the screening will be staged on the athletic field. The graduates will have access to a staged photo area for individual and group pictures. No guests will be allowed.
Caltech officials said they were listening to demands from students seeking an on-campus ceremony. It was a “positive” and “welcome development” in the effort to acknowledge graduates’ accomplishments, they said.
“Providing our community an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of Caltech’s 2021 graduates is important to Caltech,” according to a statement from Shayna Chabner McKinney, chief communications officer and assistant vice president, strategy implementation.
It’s a more cautious approach than some other Southern California colleges are taking. Officials at the small but prestigious school, home to more than 50 research centers and institutes, also aimed to prevent a possible outbreak from derailing research programs planned for summer and fall.
Abney, meanwhile, said she and her fellow seniors were deflated — especially after starting a petition sent to administrators that garnered nearly 500 signatures supporting their demand for a physical — not virtual — graduation ceremony.
They got an on-campus gathering, but they want more of a commencement, they said, not just a celebration.
“It’s like a glorified watch party, to be honest,” and not what Abney, student leaders and parents had been demanding for days, since the university’s April 16 announcement that the June ceremony would be virtual, with an in-person “campus celebration for the 2020 and 2021 graduates in the fall.”
It wasn’t fully clear what the full content of the combination in-person/virtual presentation would be, but the early plan for the virtual event was that all students who are eligible to graduate on June 11 would have their names read aloud along with a personalized “grad slide” that will display their name and degree information.
Friday’s action to at least let students attend an event on campus was progress, but didn’t go far enough, some students and parents said.
They point to more populous institutions that have worked to host some kind of in-person ceremony, with scaled-back, socially distanced audiences. As Los Angeles County coronavirus rates come down, more are vaccinated and public health authorities have loosened up restrictions, allowing outdoor events to take place.
Cal State Fullerton, for instance, is planning in-person “commencement stage walks” in June, where students will be allowed to have two guests accompany the graduate as they line up to cross a stage. Those guests will have a “front row view” of the graduate receiving a degree, and it will be livestreamed.
UCLA is planning to host in-person “commemorations,” Chancellor Gene Block announced April 13. Graduates who sign up for the commemorations will have their names read aloud, have their photos taken and walk across an outdoor stage, Block said in a campuswide email. Officials stressed it’s not truly a commencement, but rather a celebration of students, adding that full graduation ceremonies will come when the pandemic has more fully subsided.
USC is scheduling socially-distanced graduation ceremonies twice a day from May 14 to May 21 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Their goal is to combine a traditional main graduation ceremony with individual school and college ceremonies.
“Every graduate will be invited to one ceremony with their specific school or degree program cohort. Graduates will have the opportunity to process across the stage, hear their name announced, receive their diploma covers, and have photos taken, while projected on the screens at the stadium,” according to the university.
Cal State L.A.’s two in-person ceremonies will be May 29 at the Rose Bowl Stadium, along with a virtual celebration. The university was still working out the details.
Cal State Northridge University officials had informed graduating students late last year that CSUN would host an all-university virtual commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 15, with college-based virtual ceremonies. Each graduate would be recognized by name and with a photo — scheduled to take place May 21-24. Officials announced Friday that the university will be hosting a series of in-car commencement parades the week of May 25.
Stanford University’s senior class can invite two guests to its June ceremonies at the school’s stadium.
And back in Pasadena, public health officials were urging Pasadena Unified School District seniors to get vaccinated this week in time to attend the graduation ceremonies at the Rose Bowl, where each student can invite up to four adults.
University officials across the region acknowledge the COVID-19 factor has made planning a challenge, particularly with the memory still fresh of the deadly winter surge. They have cautioned their students, faculty and families that graduation season will look a lot different this June, even in-person.
But loosened public health orders have opened up possibilities, compared to last May and June, when physical commencements went dark because of the pandemic.
Under Pasadena’s revised health orders, private events up to 300 people outdoors or 150 guests indoors are permitted, with proof of full vaccination or testing.
“Continued improvements in local public health conditions, and recent updates to Pasadena Public Health’s event protocols, now allow for the Institute to host a limited in-person commencement celebration on campus,” Caltech said in its announcement Friday, acknowledging some flexibility in its policy and the push from student leaders to get back to campus to “celebrate their achievements.”
In the April 16 message to the campus community, administrators said they were concerned about the potential for outbreaks, stressing that “a large transmission,” fueled by a gathering that would include an international audience, would have the “potential to derail Pasadena’s recent progress in mitigating the spread of infection.” They also worried that it could defuse Caltech’s on-campus summer research program and research planned for the fall.
While acknowledging this is no routine year, many parents just want to see their children’s hard work — and up to $70,000-plus-a-year tuitions — conclude with a “graduation moment.”
Abney’s mother, Radiah Abney, said she was willing to forego attending, for her daughter to have the in-person moment.
“This is about being a parent and having your child work hard and earn this moment, and quite honestly paying for this moment. It’s about doing the right thing,” she said. “This pandemic took a lot from these kids. Their entire year. All they are asking for is closure … .”
Ravi Vaibyanathan said his daughter was “devastated” by the current plan.
“For an institution of Caltech’s caliber, which prides itself on being data-oriented, my complete disappointment is that they were not even open to having something of any scale,” he said, adding that the lack of flexibility smacked of being in a kind of elite “bubble.”
Caltech stood by its updated plan.
“We have endeavored to create safe and inclusive celebrations, both on campus and through a virtual ceremony, that allow our international community to come together across distance,” Chabner McKinney said in the statement.
The June event will include students who can’t be there in person, officials said, adding that more details were coming.
In the fall, the university will hold an event for 2020 and 2021 graduates and their families, as well as faculty and staff that will “incorporate traditional ceremonial elements such as processing across a stage and a PhD hooding event.”
By fall, parents and students said many students will likely be in new jobs across the country and around the world, and may not be able to take time off and to get back to the graduation. They’ll once again be in a position to have to watch it virtually, they said.
Abney vowed to push for more.
“I’m not satisfied. It’s something we deserve,” she said. “And it’s something we have been looking forward to.”