To Tiffin University's administration,

Let's take you back in time. You wake up and it’s the day you've been waiting years for, this milestone in your life, your college Commencement. You and your friends get ready in the morning, put your cap and gown on, and finally after four years of college, you are walking across the stage to receive your diploma. They call your name and it's your moment to walk across the stage, to shake all your professor's hands, and to finally show the world what the past 4+ years have taught you. Your family, friends, and loved ones are somewhere in the crowd of other proud families cheering the students on. Afterward, you find your friends in the crowd and take what feels like a million of pictures with them because you never know when you'll see them next. Looking around you think to yourself, you finally say you did it, you graduated college. Do you remember all those pictures you took wearing your cap and gown surrounded by family and friends? Do you remember how excited you were to put your cap and gown on that day? Do you remember that feeling of when you walked across the stage knowing you achieved so much and how excited you were to say you graduated college?

For the seniors in the Class of 2020, we may have lost some of the best days of our senior year due to this pandemic, but we were still looking for a Commencement ceremony to celebrate everything we have achieved. Tiffin University's Class of 2020 deserves to walk across the Heminger stage and not in a virtual environment. We have worked so hard and have come so far to be able to walk across the stage and not walk across our living room in front of a screen. Commencement is the best opportunity for students to showcase their academic and personal accomplishments from their 4+ years of hard work. Not only does Commencement allow us to celebrate but it also gives us the opportunity to recognize the people who have gotten us here. Graduation is the time where we thank our family, friends, and loved ones for supporting us through the thick and thin. It is also the time where we thank our professors, coaches, faculty, and anyone at Tiffin University who we have met and who taught us everything we need to know for the real world. College graduation is the end of one chapter and the start of a new one. It is a once in a lifetime event.

We understand due to health and safety concerns due to this pandemic, that we are unable to hold mass gatherings, but please think about after COVID-19 goes away. We truly appreciate everything that Tiffin University has done for us over the past 4+ years. We recognize and thank TU for allowing students to stay on campus during this pandemic and providing the materials that students need to strive in our online classes. Sending out daily tips and even making a video from TU's faculty and staff saying you miss us, students. Knowing that we can't predict the future with this pandemic, please Tiffin University administration reconsider and postpone our graduation. Over the past 4+ years, Tiffin University has not just been a college, it's been a family and a home for the graduating Class of 2020. And as a family, we ask that you please think about postponing and having graduation for the Tiffin University's Class of 2020 because we want to celebrate one last time at our home and as a family. We are dragons and we stand TUgether!

Because once a dragon, always a dragon!

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If you are an undergraduate student, a graduate student, a senior, an alumni, a staff or faculty member, a family member, or a friend, please sign. Every signature is greatly appreciated.