HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Pomp and circumstance move online at Marshall University this Saturday for the institution’s first-ever virtual commencement ceremonies.
At 9 a.m., a live-streamed ceremony was planned for Marshall grads for Spring 2020 after a previously-planned ceremony was postponed until August and then canceled because of COVID-19.
At 12 p.m., a separate ceremony was scheduled for Summer 2020 and Winter 2020 graduates.
“It’s such a monumental achievement for our students,” said Dr. Sonja Cantrell-Johnson, university registrar for Marshall University, of graduation.
“It’s just been a crazy year for everybody with the pandemic and it was just so important for us to recognize the achievements of our graduates.”
For the ceremonies, university officials, including Dr. Jerome Gilbert, Marshall’s president, will be staged at the Joan C. Edwards Playhouse.
Jennifer Leslie Wells, a Marshall alumna and senior regional organizer for Community Change and Community Change Action, was the scheduled keynote speaker for the 9 a.m. ceremony.
That ceremony was to also include the awarding of an honorary degree to Robert “Bob” Simpson, a former interim dean of Marshall’s Lewis College of Business.
During the 12 p.m. event, Professor Dan Hollis, the recipient of Marshall’s Dr. Charles E. Hedrick Outstanding Faculty Award, was to be the keynote speaker.
An honorary degree will be presented posthumously at that point to Ellis Marsalis, Junior, a jazz performer who died in April. Marsalis was to be recognized at an earlier ceremony that was canceled because of COVID-19.
His son, Ellis Marshall III, was planning to accept the award on his father’s behalf via video on Saturday.
The names of all of the 2020 graduates were to be read during their respective ceremonies.
Starting 30 minutes prior the ceremonies, submitted pictures of the graduates were going to be shown on the livestreams.
“It’s not an ideal year for any of us, but we’re trying do something that will highlight their achievements and their hard work that they’ve put in for the last four years,” said Cantrell-Johnson.
The link was HERE.
Recordings of the ceremonies would also be available at the same site for later viewings.