MIT announces online commencement and future in-person celebration
2020 Tech Reunions will not be held in May
An online commencement will be held May 29. An in-person celebration of the Class of 2020 will be “held at MIT at some point in the future,” President L. Rafael Reif wrote in an email to the MIT community today.
Reif wrote that “in a world so disrupted by Covid-19,” it would not be possible to conduct the Institute’s traditional in-person commencement, hooding, and Tech Reunions this May.
The online commencement will “confer degrees” and celebrate graduates. “Those who plan our usual Commencement” will help design this program along with “elected student leaders and some faculty,” Reif wrote.
The Commencement Transition Committee will plan the in-person celebration. The committee was charged to plan commencement for 2021 and beyond. It is led by Professor Jim Poterba and “bolstered by new student leaders,” Reif wrote.
“Proposing that graduates travel back to campus naturally raises questions around equity and financial burdens, so we will do our best to plan with these concerns in mind,” Reif wrote.
Reif wrote that 2020 Tech Reunions will not be held in May, but MIT will “explore ways to honor class milestones and bring the community together again.” The MIT Alumni Association will contact alumni who planned to attend Reunions with more information.
“We are trying to learn what works best in terms of frequency and channels, and we hope to find the right path between ‘too much’ and ‘not enough,’” Reif wrote.
Graduating students with ideas for commencement can email commencementideas@mit.edu.
The Tech will continue to post live COVID-19 updates here.