The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to adjust their everyday lives, including college students. As Texas A&M University adapted to an online learning environment this spring, one Aggie tradition for seniors was altered as well – graduation. With no safe way to hold in-person ceremonies for thousands of graduating seniors, the university made the decision to postpone the spring commencement.
However, that didn’t mean Texas A&M wouldn’t celebrate this landmark achievement of its students. The university challenged the colleges to find creative ways to celebrate their spring graduates in a virtual setting until a traditional commencement could safely take place.
The College of Engineering devised a plan to honor Aggie engineers in virtual Graduation Recognition Celebrations customized for each of the college’s 15 departments as an acknowledgment of the students’ years of study and status as degree candidates.
Each of the college’s departments compiled a presentation for their individual celebrations using YouTube Premieres. The recognition included video messages from the chancellor, university president, provost, the student body president, department heads and Porter Garner from The Association of Former Students, who welcomed graduates to the Aggie network. They also featured recognition of each graduate by degree designation, personal notes of encouragement from faculty and advisors, and photo scrapbooks made from student contributions documenting their experiences at Texas A&M.
The presentations went live on Friday and Saturday, May 8-9, with each department assigned its own time for viewing. Each of the College of Engineering’s 2,359 graduates was recognized, and the live feeds were viewed more than 3,000 times over the weekend.
“We hope our engineering students and their families and friends enjoyed seeing them individually acknowledged in our virtual recognition ceremony,” said Dr. M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering. “Despite the pandemic prohibiting the university from holding traditional commencement exercises at this time, we felt it important to publicly acknowledge our students’ commitment to their studies as they completed their final semester as Aggie engineering students.”
All graduates will be welcome to return to Texas A&M to walk in a future commencement exercise when the university is able to return to this important tradition.