ETSU President Brian Noland announced in an email to ETSU students, faculty and staff Wednesday that fall commencement exercises scheduled for Dec. 12 will be held virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This includes all graduation recognition and hooding ceremonies.
“This has been a very difficult decision for the institution, but we recognize the need to keep the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, and campus guests as the highest priority,” Noland said in the email.
Fall commencement was originally anticipated to be an opportunity for spring 2020 graduates to return to walk across the graduation stage, since their commencement was held virtually due to COVID-19. Now the university hopes to allow both spring and fall 2020 graduates to participate in an in-person ceremony in spring 2021, according to the email.
The ceremonies will be streamed live at etsu.edu/classof2020 , as well as on the main ETSU Facebook account at 10 a.m. on Dec. 12. Recordings of the ceremonies can also be viewed on this website after the live premiere.
Noland said this decision was based on recommendations from ETSU’s COVID-19 Medical Response Team, and guidelines from the CDC, as well as state and local health agencies.
