LU outlines plans for in-person graduation events

Cedric Kyles, aka Cedric the Entertainer, speaks to students and the crowd at Lincoln University's graduation on May 16, 2015. Kyles, a successful actor and comedian whose parents attended LU, wasn't paid a fee for his participation.
Cedric Kyles, aka Cedric the Entertainer, speaks to students and the crowd at Lincoln University's graduation on May 16, 2015. Kyles, a successful actor and comedian whose parents attended LU, wasn't paid a fee for his participation.

With graduation less than a month away, plans for Lincoln University's in-person commencement are coming into focus.

Commencement will be May 14-16 between five different ceremonies held in the Richardson Fine Arts Center. Graduating seniors will be given six armbands they can give family and friends who wish to attend their particular ceremony. These will be used as tickets for guests' entry into the ceremony.

Faculty and administration said social-distancing protocols would be observed during the event in light of COVID-19 concerns.

"Of course, if a family comes in together, they're going to be considered a pod of people," communications and marketing Director Misty Nunn said. "Then we would ask that there would be at least 6 feet of space between them and the next group of people."

Nunn said Richardson Fine Art Center is large enough for the university to able to keep six people together as well as spread them out inside the auditorium. If families need any more space to be seated, Nunn has said the upper and downstairs floors would be used to seat those during the proceedings.

Former alumni or underclass will not be directly allowed into the event. Like any other guest, they would have to be one of those six guests of a graduating student.

Nunn said the university plans to livestream the events on its website.

"Just go onto the official LU homepage, and there will be a banner that will take them directly to the commencement page with the livestream information on it," she said.

Due to the pandemic, LU did not hold an in-person commencement during 2020.

With the new year, LU officials said they are eager to bring back the tradition of allowing students the opportunity to walk across the stage to accept their diploma.

"We are really excited to be able to hold commencement," Nunn said. "With the pandemic that was happening, we didn't get to have that full scale event.

"And while we did do a virtual event for students last year, we were excited to be able to get back to a little bit of normalcy," she said. "And we're glad that our first large scale event is commencement 2021."