Postponed commencement leaves students disappointed

Most kids dream of the opportunity to walk across a stage in a grandiose college commencement ceremony as they celebrate their academic achievements and transition to a professional career.

Unfortunately for Murray State students, they won’t get the chance anytime soon. Murray State President Bob Jackson announced on March 12 that spring commencement, scheduled for May 9, had been postponed.

According to Jackson’s press release, all earned degrees by the spring class would be conferred, and the University would pursue a different date for the ceremony.

While the news was certainly tough to stomach for members of the spring graduating class, students said postponement was likely a prudent decision.

“I think postponing commencement was a good idea because it’s what’s necessary in order to keep the Murray community safe and healthy,” said senior Lauren Cartwright. “It obviously isn’t ideal, but I do think we have to be conscious of the mandate our governing leaders have set.”

“Graduation is something all of us look forward to,” said senior Weston Duke. “I hate that we won’t have the chance to hold a normal ceremony, but it probably had to be moved. I don’t know how it will affect attendance at a future date, though.”

Jackson’s statement said Murray State was “reviewing other options and a future date for this event,” though it’s unclear what those options were. Murray State Executive Director of Marketing Communications Shawn Touney told the MKY Guide the University had yet to make a decision on a date.

The uncertainty of the situation makes it difficult to predict a new date, but one potential option could be consolidating the spring and fall commencement ceremonies into one in the fall. 

However, senior Duane Curtis, who graduates in the fall of 2020, believes combining the two would create unwelcome overcrowding.

“I don’t think there is one certain way to hold spring commencement and make everyone happy.” Curtis said. “I don’t think they should combine spring and fall because that would be an extremely large commencement for us. Also, many people who were supposed to graduate in the spring would either be too busy or just not want to come back to Murray in the winter to graduate.”

Curtis believes moving spring commencement to the middle of the fall semester could help prevent that overcrowding. Pushing the date back, however, could result in a drop in attendance, as many students who have already begun their professional careers would likely find it challenging to return for commencement. 

“I think there are pros and cons of having graduation with fall,” Cartwright said. “It would be an easy way to still allow seniors to have a ceremony, but I think you would lose a lot of students. Also, graduation is already long as is, and combining classes would cause it to be even longer. [Fall commencement] might be the most reasonable idea, though.”

With a 2020 semester that has already been ravaged by COVID-19, seniors like Duke are hoping they get to return to Murray State’s campus one last time before starting a new chapter in their lives.

“After all we’ve had to go through this semester, I’d hope we’ll get to have some closure in our college career with one last ceremony together,” Duke said.