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Dear Parents of Class of 2020,
As you all know, New York University has been heeding the warnings of public health authorities as well as city and state officials by restricting in-person gatherings and protecting the health and safety of our community from the COVID-19 pandemic. The result so far has been our need to conduct remotely the academic engagements among faculty, students, and staff. Given the health hazard and ongoing prohibition of large gatherings, the 188th All-University Commencement Exercises, scheduled for Wednesday, May 20, 2020, at Yankee Stadium, have been postponed until further notice.
I express profound regret announcing that the College of Arts and Science Baccalaureate Ceremony for the Class of 2020, due to take place the day prior, on May 19, at Radio City Music Hall, likewise must be postponed. While we continue to prepare for the day when we will be permitted to hold a traditional in-person, physical ceremony for students, we are working to create for you, for this same original date, a unique virtual tribute of which we hope that students, families, and friends will be proud.
Indeed, what we have come simply to call “Baccalaureate” is a graduation ceremony which we customarily have held at Radio City Music Hall over the past several years. Ranging from speeches and handshakes to cheers and picture-taking, the activities of this event constitute the kind of academic tradition that many of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced before and may wish to enjoy again.
Yet Baccalaureate is more than an event beneath the bright lights of Radio City Music Hall, just as Commencement is more than the thousands of people roaring inside Yankee Stadium. Graduation is the moment of transition for students. Your sons and daughters are growing from being a student, the brief period of their higher education, to being an alumnus, the lifetime responsibility of imparting knowledge to others and making the world a better place. They are embarking on that consequential transition to intellectual and professional maturity. They are reaping the reward of consummated academic work, conveyed in their letters of faculty recommendations, transcribed across the resume or curriculum vita bearing their name, and symbolized by their CAS diploma. Despite our inability to assemble in person, baccalaureate degrees will still be conferred. The lives of studies will still be launched. And they will still lead yet another generation of NYU students poised to advance knowledge in society.
Between now and when we are permitted to assemble in large numbers, we still plan to honor the unique place of Class of 2020 in the history of CAS, and recognize the meaning of their graduation. All eligible graduating students should mark the date May 19, 2020, when we will publicly release a remarkable virtual ceremony. In this web-based experience, we will make sure that the story of graduation is told with the significance you have come to expect at NYU, and that social connections among classmates will thrive.
We will provide you more information about our virtual event as soon as we are able, so stay tuned. I am sure that many of you will have a series of questions to which we will not have exact answers. We plan to consult the leadership of CAS Student Council for ideas. In the meantime, we will do our best to keep you informed over the upcoming weeks and months about our plans.
I realize that this news follows the unsettling spate of communications you may have been receiving both inside and outside the University. Writing this letter has been unsettling for me as well. Ever since I arrived in Fall 2017, Baccalaureate has been an event I always looked forward to. Nonetheless, I anticipate a day when we will enjoy celebrating the graduation of Class 2020 together.
Until then, I thank you in advance for your resiliency and cooperation. Together, we continue to endure one of the greatest societal challenges of our time. The annals of history, however, will look especially upon the perseverance our students with admiration. Their success will be an extraordinary lesson for the generations of those who will follow in their wake.
If you have questions, please consult the CAS Senior Class page or email cas.baccalaureate@nyu.edu.
Sincerely,
GJ
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Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University
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