Commencements are always wonderful occasions, but last weekend’s graduation celebration for the Class of 2020 was truly something special. We all remember the painful wrench felt by these students when they were sent home abruptly at the start of the pandemic. While nothing can restore the time they lost, being able to finally come together as a class, and celebrate their accomplishments with their families, clearly provided a sense of joy and closure that was amazing to behold. I know that many colleges that held ceremonies for their 2020 graduates this year had 40-60% of the class return. We had over 75% of the class here this weekend, and quite a few family members as well.
I am enormously grateful to every member of the community who contributed to this occasion, from our Facilities colleagues who prepared the grounds and assembled a commencement stage when it became clear this event would not fit in Skinner Chapel, to the Alumni Relations, Events, Provost’s Office, Bon Appetit, and Student Life staff who took time away from other activities to help out, to the many faculty who met with former students, attended the Friday reception, and donned their caps and gowns on a Sunday morning.
Making this possible for our 2020 graduates was a heavy lift at the end of a summer that already had lots of “bonus” activities. In addition to the well attended June Reunion, we held a second Milestones Reunion earlier this month, after having also hosted a gathering of the 50+ alumni late in the spring. This weekend’s celebration ran concurrently with our annual CAVE weekend, the Carleton Alumni Volunteer Experience, a reunion planning weekend that is a major event in and of itself. For colleagues in Student Life, this is also the final preparation and break period before students begin arriving in advance of New Student Week.
Having written earlier in the summer about the importance of getting some downtime, I recognize that these events made the summer busier than usual for many of you. I hope that having the last of these “make up” events completed can help create a sense of closure at having righted some of the imbalance our community experienced over the past two years. That doesn’t mean that all our pandemic challenges are behind us. But I do hope that we can close a particular chapter of this long book, and let go of some of the tendency to push ourselves that I think comes in part from a guilty sense that we are still compensating for losses. I hope the fall term will finally feel like a fresh start, and not a race to catch up.
Many of the 2020 graduates and their families expressed their tremendous gratitude for this event, and asked me to convey to the Carleton community how much this collective effort meant to them. I think the picture below, which I took from the platform, conveys that message well. Many thanks!
