No Fall Graduation Ceremony for University of Montana

Back when summer graduations were on the bubble, we at least had a little excitement of having the decision come down to the wire! We had that fun game we played with all the different scenarios. Will there be graduation ceremonies? Will they be canceled? How different will they be if they do happen? What has to happen with our reopening phase in order to actually hold one? High school seniors and parents had to be getting pretty stressed. Of course, MCPS graduations ended up taking place at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in early June.

Well, we won't have to play the "will there be/won't there be" game when it comes to fall graduation for the University of Montana. They've made the call that there won't be a commencement ceremony for the upcoming fall graduates. This comes as a follow-up to COVID-19 concerns cancelling the spring graduation ceremony earlier this year.

A KPAX article details an email that the University sent to students to inform them of the cancellation: "Given the level of COVID-19 infection and spread both nationally and in Montana, and the uncertainty of whether this will subside or increase in the coming weeks, we believe a large gathering of the UM family for a Commencement ceremony this fall is not in the best interest of our recent graduates, their families or our community."

All that work to graduate and no ceremony? Well, not exactly. Students that had commencements canceled are being invited to celebrate with the class of 2021 next year. That sounds like one gargantuan graduation! I'm going to get started on copyrighting the term "Gargantuation" right now!