INTRODUCTION: At 11:03 am on March 23rd, 2021, Roger Williams University president, Yannis Miaoulis sent an email informing the class of 2021 that their families will be unable to attend the graduation ceremony. This petition is to hopefully find a way to work with RWU to figure out what needs to be done to allow our families to attend our graduation ceremony.

WHY THIS PETITION EXISTS: Since August 2020 (the beginning of the fall semester), there has been radio silence regarding the decision of whether guests will be able to attend our 2021 graduation ceremony (May 22, 2021). Due to this lack of communication, many of our families have booked time off, multi-hour day trips, overnight stays at hotels, and cross country, possibly even intercontinental, flights to attend this monumental occasion to celebrate the achievement of hundreds of students. Last year, the decision was made to postpone the class of 2020's graduation ceremony to this year (May 23, 2021), many of these former students will be traveling with their families from out of state, some even from outside New England. Now, at the halfway point of the semester, a little over 8 weeks away, none of these people will be able to celebrate this event properly. After years of dedication and hard work, the least that Roger Williams University can give back to us is to be able to look out amongst the crowd, with our rightfully earned diplomas in hand, and to see our families smiling [masked] faces staring back at us.

We ALL understand what COVID is capable of. Most of us have either contracted or know of others that have contracted it. We've seen how it affects the lives of everyone. Many of us have lost loved ones, or know people that have lost loved ones to this virus. With that, we as students have been content with giving up a lot of our college lives in order to keep the school, as a whole, safe. We gave up large classes, sporting events, the dining hall, actively hanging out with friends, studying in groups, meeting with professors, and hell, we even gave up spring break without going up in arms about it. We took online classes and exams for months, enduring the long and arduous days that came with it, and many of us sacrificing our grades and mental health for it – this especially has taken a toll on me personally.

CONCLUSION: Yet, after all of this, we have received very little in return. I believe that we all think we are owed something, not for more of our college life to be stripped away. With enough signatures, I (Daniel Meglino) will personally go to President Miaoulis (and hopefully, as well as other faculty involved with this issue) with this petition to try and talk through possible changes that can be made so that our families can attend the 2021 graduation ceremony – I know this is cheesy, but I genuinely mean it. This is an uphill battle, so the more signatures we get, the better chance we’ll have. Thank you.