Virtual celebrations on agenda for Texas colleges this spring
Texas colleges are getting creative as they plan virtual celebrations and other digital accommodations for spring graduations in lieu of in-person commencements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One thing when we started, we thought, ‘If we can’t do an in-person thing, let’s try to give them something else unique,’” Brandon Martin, manager of videography at Rice University.
Rice is working on featurelength films for its undergraduate, graduate and doctoral student ceremonies. Each video, which will last at least an hour, will be streamed online May 16 and will be available to view later on various platforms, including YouTube and Facebook.
The decisions to host virtual celebrations came after many colleges around the country closed campuses and resumed classes online in efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. As a result, many commencements have been postponed, with colleges offering students the option to walk and celebrate in person in the fall. In the meantime, they’re hoping to offer students something special.
At Rice, Martin is working with the university’s IT team and a committee of students, faculty and staff to complete the ceremony films with profiles on students, personal messages from staff and faculty, and slideshows that will include pictures of each graduate.
Martin said the video will also feature bittersweet moments
from earlier this year, including student move-out and the mock commencement seniors hosted when they learned the campus would close and classes would be online for the rest of the semester.
“Class of 2020 — it’s such a historical number, … and you think it’s historical just because of the number, but you never knew it would be a global pandemic associated with them,” Martin said.
But Martin said he’s striving for it not to become a “coronavirus pity party.”
The process has proven to be a challenge. Martin has had to wear a mask and practice “contactless video capturing,” which requires him to social distance from his subjects without a lavalier microphone.
Elsewhere:
• Prairie View A&M University will host a virtual celebration at 10 a.m. Saturday on the university’s website to honor its 910 graduates, but will tentatively host an in-person summer graduation in August should large gatherings be permitted at that time.
• The University of Texas at Austin’s virtual celebration will be held May 23, starting with an online pre-show at 8:30 p.m. and the commencement at 9 p.m. Brene Brown, UT alumna and renowned researcher at the University of Houston, will speak at the commencement. • Houston Community College will hold virtual, live-streamed commencement options for all ceremonies on May 22 and has invited graduates to attend a ceremony in the fall.
• UH is postponing its May commencement until the fall but will also plan for “something symbolic” to recognize the milestone for its graduates, said President Renu Khator.
• Texas A&M University expects to graduate about 10,800 students next week, but with commencement postponed, the university plans to honor the students in “a number of special ways,” President Michael Young said in a letter to the community.
• Alvin Community College has invited its graduates to virtual ceremonies on May 22-23 but has also invited students to participate in a fall ceremony in December.