A year and a half later, UNC’s Class of 2020 finally celebrates graduation
A year and a half after UNC-Chapel Hill’s Class of 2020 wrapped up their classes a few months into the coronavirus pandemic, they got to celebrate their graduation with a belated commencement ceremony.
In March of 2020, UNC, like many universities across the country, abruptly canceled classes and moved them online just two months before the Class of 2020’s May graduation. Later that same month, university officials postponed the ceremony citing the “overwhelming speed and highly viral nature in which the novel coronavirus has spread.”
The rescheduled ceremony, held Oct. 10, came a year and a half after their original graduation date but still gave some students a somewhat normal cap to their time at UNC that they needed to move on from their college career’s strange end.
“Life does move pretty fast,” Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said in an address to the graduates Sunday. “For you, the Class of 2020, it’s not that life moved fast as much as it changed and became something completely different, really fast.”
Guskiewicz said this weekend was meant to give graduates the ability to take back the time they missed out on as a result of the pandemic and highlighted the fact that no other class in UNC’s history had an experience like the Class of 2020.
“We don’t want you to miss this moment,” Guskiewicz said.
Ally Yoder, who graduated with a degree in psychology and neuroscience and now works in Raleigh, was among those graduates who attended the belated ceremony.
“We finally got to actually have closure,” Yoder said. “It feels nice, though, being back here.”
Crishaun Hardy, who majored in environmental studies and minored in journalism, flew in from California for the ceremony and the memories it would bring.
“Now we’ll have photos, we’ll have at least the experience,” Hardy said. “It’s not the same as what it would have been.”
Former UNC basketball head coach and two-time alumnus Roy Williams, who announced his retirement in April, gave the keynote address Sunday afternoon and spoke about overcoming adversity, though, like many other commencement speakers, mostly steered away from talking about COVID-19.
“Be led by your dreams, not pushed by your problems,” Williams said. “And you may have some adversity and probably will. But you’re a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.”
Sunday’s commencement, held outdoors at Kenan Memorial Stadium, was part of a three-day celebration that included other traditions.
This story was originally published October 10, 2021 at 6:07 PM.
