Due to the current pandemic, SSU students who were set to graduate in May are not currently able to due so. However, the option given to students is to participate in a virtual graduation, and/or to participate in the Fall 2020 commencement in December.

Both of these options feel inadequate for celebrating our accomplishments. Sharing a graduation with the December graduates would take away from both groups of students, and we also lack adequate space for such a large commencement ceremony. In addition, many of the Spring 2020 graduates will have moved away and started new jobs and lives which wouldn't allow them to return in December, even if they wished to.

As a Spring 2020 graduate, I am asking you to sign this petition in hopes that we can receive a ceremony in late July or early August. Makeup clinicals and labs have been set for these months, so there is no reason that a graduation cannot also be planned for this time. If the pandemic situation is still the same in late Summer, SSU leaders can reevaluate and then push the graduation back again. Please give us a chance to properly celebrate our accomplishments!