Lehman College’s Post-Pandemic Graduation
By Rebekah Gamble, Lifestyle Editor
Lehman College will have its first in-person graduation since the 2020 shutdown of on-campus activity in response to COVID-19. The graduating class of 2022 will be able to sit with their departmental major and wait for their moment to stand up and move their tassel. News of the in-person event came as a surprise to students and alumni.
Daniel Santiago, a Senior Computer Science major, stated he’s ready to move onto the next phase of life. “I’m ready for the next step and I would go to graduation,” he said. “I don’t have any feelings about the ceremony at this point.”
Senior Exercise Science major Astrid Jimenez is excited to not only graduate but also looking forward to taking a breather, after spending half of her college experience remotely and now only being offered in-person courses to finish her degree, “I’m ready to graduate,” she said. “I’m most excited to have a break from school and I look forward to taking a vacation over attending a ceremony.”. After missing out on opportunities to make friends, bond with teachers, and maximize the college experience, graduation is bittersweet.
The college has released information regarding the ceremony on its campus website. All attendees will be able to bring up to 3 guests and all guests must be fully vaccinated in order to gain access to campus. The details regarding how vaccination will be submitted remains unknown. The campus will be transformed similar to previous semesters, and it has alumni wondering if they would be invited back to stand with their major.
Spring 2020 Social Work graduate Keila Santana stated that she would love to be invited to the ceremony. “So much time has passed,” she said. “I don’t know if I would take a day off from work to stand with a different cohort, but an invitation would be nice.”
The class of 2020 and 2021 worked tirelessly to get to the finish line only to be sent off with a virtual event. Students graduating with honors were presented in a format which simply just included photos that sped across the screen in the order of rank. By the end of the program, the cohort was justified in feeling jipped.
Denny Santos, Chair of the Commencement Committee sat down to speak with the Meridian. “We’re really excited to welcome our graduates and their families and friends onto campus for the first in-person commencement since the pandemic began. What we can confirm right now is that in an effort to reduce density on campus to a safe level, all graduates may invite no more than three vaccinated guests to the ceremony. This safeguard is put in place due to an expected crowd of 12,000 on our campus. A commencement safety plan has been prepared and once our plan is approved, it will be posted on the website.”
As of March 7th Lehman College has become a mask optional campus. It brings attention to whether the campus will have any other COVID-19 protocols in place besides the ongoing vaccine mandate.
This means that Lehman College students will have to stay tuned for more CUNY updates when it comes to how each campus will handle their first in-person ceremony since the pandemic began.
Note: Graduation is set to take place on Thursday May 26, 2022 at 10:00 AM in the Southfield area of the campus. May 2022 graduates have from now until March 19, 2022 to apply for graduation on CUNYFirst. For more information, inquiries and questions regarding graduation, students can visit lehman.edu/commencement or email Student Affairs at Student.Affairs@Lehman.cuny.edu.
