Information regarding the Class of 2020 Celebration and Commencement being held June 2-5, 2022 can be found on the Commencement 2020 website
May 6, 2020: The following update regarding the May 24 Commencement ceremony was sent from President Roth to the campus community this morning.
Dear friends,
I begin by saying (again) how impressed I am, though not surprised, by how Wesleyan has stepped up in the face of current challenges. Ours is a strong and caring community indeed.
Every year we celebrate Wesleyan as an empowering community when we confer degrees upon graduating seniors. This year, at noon on Sunday, May 24, the Commencement ceremony will be (as it must) virtual. We have arranged for the honorary degree recipients and our student speaker to deliver their remarks in a series of pre-recorded videos. My remarks and the conferral of degrees will be live.
We will miss the marching, the music, and the mortarboards in the air. In addition, the Binswanger awards will be presented on a future occasion. Nonetheless, there will be much to celebrate: primarily, the resiliency of our seniors and our graduate students who managed to hold the course in the face of unforeseen difficulties and disappointments. We will do our best to acknowledge them on May 24, and again next year at an in-person ceremony.
Normally at Commencement, celebrants sit close together on Andrus field, or up behind the podium on Denison Terrace or over on Foss Hill. May 24 will be different, but even if we sit far apart from one another, the power of togetherness will be strong.
A formal e-invitation to graduating students and their families and the Wes community is forthcoming.
Michael S. Roth
President
April 3, 2020: Wesleyan has announced that it will postpone the 2020 graduation ceremony. We expect the Board of Trustees to vote to award degrees at its May meeting, and for official purposes, the University will graduate all those who qualify. We will find a way to mark that event in some festive, if still virtual, way at that time. In addition, we’ll plan to celebrate the 2020 graduates at an in-person event at some point in the future.
Reunions as planned for this May will not be taking place as scheduled, due to continuing concerns surrounding the COVID-19 virus. We had hoped that the trajectory of the pandemic might be such that we could move ahead, but under current conditions, have decided that gathering a large group of alumni, guests, students, faculty and staff in May would pose too large a risk to the health and safety of our community and beyond.
We will continue to regularly communicate with the Wesleyan community, and will post updates here and to this website with the latest available information.
We appreciate your patience during this time of uncertainty.
Questions? Please contact your reunion class liaison or email us at rc@wesleyan.edu.