Princeton University Postpones On Campus 2020 Graduation Until 2021

Princeton University has announced that they'll postpone the on-campus 2020 graduation ceremony until May of 2021, according to Planet Princeton.

Graduates won't have to wait a year to get their degrees though. Degrees will be granted by a virtual ceremony on Sunday, May 31st.

Princeton University President, Christopher Eisgruber told the Princeton University community about its future plans by letter recently.

The letter, in part, read, “Your class has achieved as much as any in memory, and you have sacrificed considerably more than any that I can recall. Each and every senior on this campus lost precious opportunities and long-anticipated moments when this awful pandemic forced Princeton’s spring semester online," Eisgruber wrote.

Eisgruber acknowledged that they originally hoped to have an on-campus commencement this spring, but the evolving pandemic has made that impossible at this time. In conjunction with the class' leadership committee, they made a decision to hold a ceremony for the class of 2020 next spring.

"The on-campus commencement ceremony for the class of 2020 will take place just before reunions on either May 19 or May 20 of 2021. University administrators are still working out details," Eisgruber wrote.

In the interim, however, degrees will be conferred in a short virtual ceremony on Sunday, May 31, 2020.

I'm so very happy to see the on-campus ceremony will still be held, even if it's a year later. I hope all other schools will follow suit (college and high school).

Graduates deserve their moment to shine, and they should have an honorable end to that chapter of their lives.

Great decision, Princeton.