Editor’s Note: This article is an update on graduation, correcting some of the details shared in a previous article.
The Review congratulates all 2022 graduates on their accomplishments. This year, convocation ceremonies will be held on May 6, in a drive-thru format. Similar to the way ceremonies have been conducted since COVID-19 regulations were set in place in 2020. This format will continue to take place due to positive feedback received over the past two years from graduates and their families, Stephanie Albach, Executive Assistant for the University Relations told the Review.
“We planned the drive-through protocol with the best of intentions based on positive feedback from last year’s graduates,” said Albach. “While we initiated the drive-thru convocations during COVID, it was not the motivating factor in continuing with this format.”
Convocation will start in the morning on May 6. Students and their families will drive up to a stage, exit their cars, and give their names to the faculty and staff members greeting them. Their names will then be announced and the graduate will cross the stage to the awaiting dean to take pictures and receive their diploma covers. The diplomas will later be mailed to graduates following final grades. After leaving the stage students will return to their car and are welcome to park and take photos. Several locations across campus will be set up with photo op backdrops.
The commencement ceremony will be held in person at 6:30 p.m. Graduates in full regalia will gather in the Fulton Library Quad to prepare for the processional which will be led by a bagpipe and drum band into the Liberal Arts Building, down the hall to the LA/Rebecca D. Lockhart Arena crossroads across the bridge into the UCCU Event Center, and then proceed into the arena. Once graduates have made it to the EC, they will wait until the UVU Wind Symphony begins playing the traditional, “Pomp & Circumstance.” They will then proceed into the arena in front of family and friends. This year’s keynote speaker will be Mary C. Daly, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Provost F. Wayne Vaught will invite the graduates to stand up and be congratulated and instructed to move their tassels from the right to the left side of their caps at the end of the ceremony.
Albach encourages all students to attend graduation, and told the Review surveys will be sent out to students on their experience afterward.
