Walking Across a World Stage
The New York Times published an article titled “Denied a Second Chance at a Normal Senior Year” detailing how Covid ruined the high school graduations for the class of 2020 and that current campus protests might upend their 2024 college commencement.
Since then, USC, Columbia, University of Minnesota, and others have canceled their traditional commencement ceremonies due to Pro-Palestine protests on campus and it is likely that other universities will follow suit.
As a member of the class of 2020 and one of many students across the world who had their graduation ruined by a global pandemic, I lived through the experience of ending high school without ceremonies or closure.
But I will also say that our ruined high school graduations were a moment for our generation to recognize that there are things in this world worth paying attention to, reading on and learning about as they can affect your life in ways you couldn't have imagined.
Instead of a pandemic that we didn’t ask for coming to ruin our plans, we as a generation are the ones making plans and statements and are prepared for the consequences.
Commencement is a party at the end of college put on by your institution, recognizing the education they provided you with. These encampments are the practice and manifestation of the education one received in and outside the classroom over those four years. These are chosen spaces and communities that acknowledge the achievements that occurred over those four years in a different way.
As Senior Daniel Martinez would put it: “Commencement is given to you, encampments and protest are something you take back.”
In 2020 nobody asked for a global pandemic, instead, it descended on our homes and lives without permission. These protests across campuses are a radically different experience for college graduates-this generation is inviting change.
Universities across the U.S. are canceling graduations. Multicultural Center Director Tanvi Syed said students are giving up their graduation and instead setting up encampments to bring awareness of what is going on in Gaza.
“That is, unfortunately, the only possible way we can make tangible change, other than emailing our local and state representatives and sending constant ceasefire emails,” Syed said. “Other than that, the question is how we make an impact at our educational institutions and that is by holding space and educating people.”
These higher education institutions have taught their students to learn, to pay attention, to read the news and to be informed citizens who act on what they see in the world.
The pandemic also taught them that things previously assured to you, like a normal graduation ceremony, can be taken away at a moment's notice.
This idea that this class of students is “cursed” because we can’t seem to have a peaceful graduation ceremony is such an absurdly privileged thing to say. An education, and a graduation ceremony at the end of that education, are privileges that only a small percentage of the world and even this country can fathom. What comes with this privilege is the ability to use one’s education and one’s voice for change in the world.
"We're privileged as students of higher education,” said senior Marketing major Gillian Tran. “We’re attending such a prestigious university. We have privilege, we have power and we have a voice."
Graduation should be about the students, Tran said.
“We're telling the university what we want. How we want our graduation to look like and who we want to speak at our universities,” she said.“I don't know why that power is being taken away.”
2020 taught us that global issues can and will hit home. It taught many of us that we don’t live in a time or a world where we can just graduate and party without considering other things happening in the world. We’ve been educated to pay attention.