Graduation Ceremonies Canceled For UGA, And More: Coronavirus

ATLANTA, GA — College graduations have been canceled for both The University of Georgia and Georgia Southern University due to the coronavirus. The universities made the announcement Tuesday. UGA said that “actual ceremonies for both undergraduate and graduate commencement will be canceled for May 8, 2020.”

“We realize that the cancellation of many of these activities is extremely disappointing—particularly the cancellation of Spring Commencement on Friday, May 8, 2020. Therefore, we are exploring other ways to honor our graduates and will communicate when those plans are known. These decisions are not made lightly, but with the best interests of our campus community and our students’ families and loved ones in mind.”

Georgia Southern University says they will discuss other options to celebrate graduates and are also exploring a possible rescheduling date.

“As we manage this ever-changing situation with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), our primary goal is to protect students, faculty, and staff. One of the most important preventative measures is to avoid having people in large groups as advised by the Georgia Department of Public Health and the CDC. Accordingly, we unfortunately need to cancel all public events to include our planned commencement exercises on May 8 & 9."

Classes for both colleges will move to online instruction for all courses for the remainder of the Spring semester effective March 30.

Georgia Tech posted on its website that graduation is still scheduled for May 1 and 2. On Wednesday, the university shared this public statement:

"We do not have any known cases of COVID-19 at Georgia Tech and the Institute remains open with modified operations. The Institute is proactively monitoring and assessing the outbreak to protect the health and wellbeing of the Georgia Tech community."

Emory University has commencement scheduled for May 7-11.

"While we look forward to celebrating the Class of 2020 for their extraordinary accomplishments, we are examining possible contingency plans in light of rapidly evolving public health concerns for large scale events," the university posted on its website.

Their spring break has been extended to March 22. Graduate and undergraduate students will transition to remote learning classes Monday.

Georgia State University has canceled its graduation ceremonies.

"Because of the public health emergency created by the coronavirus pandemic, the University System of Georgia (USG) has informed USG institutions we will not be conducting graduation ceremonies this spring. As a result, the undergraduate ceremonies scheduled for May 6, 7 and 8, the associate degree ceremony on May 5, master’s ceremonies on various dates in May and the Ph.D. hooding ceremony on May 4 will not be held as scheduled."

Globally, more than 205,000 people have been infected and more than 8,000 people have died from the COVID-19, Johns Hopkins reported Wednesday. Of that total, more than 81,000 confirmed cases are in China, while the entire United States has 6,500 confirmed cases as of Wednesday. Fifty-five deaths in the U.S. have been tied to the virus outbreak.

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