Due to the global challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Vanderbilt University has suspended all in-person events for the rest of the semester. On behalf of the Class of 2020, we urge Vanderbilt to postpone Commencement and other Commencement-related programming rather than cancel it or hold it online. 
 
College graduation is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Graduation commemorates years of hard work, personal growth, and contribution to the Vanderbilt community. For many students at Vanderbilt, they will be the first in their family to graduate, and electing to have an anticlimactic virtual commencement to celebrate the achievements of these students as well as the rest of our graduating class fails to recognize our graduating class and their tremendous contributions that have shaped Vanderbilt University into what it is today.

From the moment we stepped onto campus four years ago, we dreamed of walking across the stage on Alumni Lawn with our friends and family cheering for us, we dreamed of tossing our caps into the air, and we dreamed of having a Vanderbilt University diploma handed to us. The Class of 2020 would lose a moment they can never get back.
 
Please support the achievements of the Class of 2020 by signing and sharing this petition to postpone Commencement and neither cancel it nor hold it virtually!