PLEASE SHARE WITH ALL MIZZOU 2020 GRADUATES:

The University of Missouri- Columbia has just announced that they have decided to postpone December commencement indefinitely for the Class of 2020 due to Covid-19 and it not being "logistically feasible and safe from a public health perspective." Although they have said this, they continue to have home football games where they have reported that over 20,000 guests have been coming from out of town to attend the games at the the stadium. Other Universities such as The University of Alabama, and Missouri State (both of which have a similar enrollment to us) have been able to hold or plan to hold in person ceremonies safely and effectively and we feel that Mizzou can do the same. 

We simply want what is fair, it is difficult for students to accept that Mizzou is able to hold football games with 20,000 guests but refuse to provide us with a socially distanced commencement alternative to do the one thing that we all came here to do: celebrate our achievement of graduating. 

Our ideas for a safe socially distant commencement ceremony include:

• Making it a requirement that all guests and students wear masks and socially distance
• Extend graduation weekend to allow Mizzou to utilize their large event centers such as Mizzou Arena (Occupancy: 15,061) Hearnes Center (Occupancy: 13,611) Trowbridge Livestock Center (Occupancy 600), Missouri Theatre (Occupancy 1,200.) etc. to hold commencement ceremonies with smaller amounts of graduates and guests so social distancing can be enforced.
• Have guests sit in their own assigned sections- similar to how Mizzou has been seating individuals at the football games this semester.
• Have guests RSVP and receive tickets to attend ceremonies
• Have a limit on the amount of guests students may invite to maintain safe numbers 
• Require testing for guests 
• Utilize the Stadium or Stankowski field to allow students to walk-- even if it is cold, many Mizzou's students want so badly to have a commencement that they are willing to do this
• If Mizzou is absolutely unable to take these ideas into consideration, allow students to walk in person (With masks and socially distancing) and allow guests to tune in virtually by live streaming the event -- Similar to how Mizzou held the White Coat ceremony for medical students this past July

For further clarification we have included links to the socially distanced graduation plans of schools comparable to Mizzou:

Missouri State: https://www.missouristate.edu/Commencement/For-Graduates.htm

The University of Alabama: https://commencement.ua.edu/ceremony/

Kansas State University: https://www.k-state.edu/grad/students/graduation/ 

We, the University of Missouri- Columbia, class 2020 are willing to work with administration to plan a safe, socially distanced commencement ceremony.