ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Winthrop University’s December Commencement ceremony on Dec. 19 will be a virtual celebration.
After reviewing survey responses provided by graduating seniors and graduate students, the university opted to hold a prerecorded virtual celebration that will air at 3 p.m. on Dec. 19. It will feature remarks from Interim President George Hynd, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Adrienne McCormick and Alumni Association President Byron Putman ’94 and will include submitted pictures and the reading of names of December, May and August graduates who chose to participate.
A link to the virtual Commencement ceremony will be placed on the Winthrop homepage at 3 p.m. on Dec. 19.
Additionally, December graduates will be able to pick up their diplomas at the Lois Rhame West Health, Physical Education and Wellness Center on Dec. 19. Five to 10 graduates will be allowed to enter at a time, and they will enter and exit from the side doors facing the Johnson Hall parking lot. Each college has been assigned a window of time for its graduates to pick up their diplomas: College of Arts and Sciences, 9-10 a.m.; College of Business Administration, 10-11 a.m.; and Colleges of Education and Visual and Performing Arts, 11 a.m.-noon.
"While neither of these events can truly replace the joyous celebration of a traditional ceremony where graduates are surrounded by family and friends, we will make these events as special as possible as we work to keep graduates, their families and the Winthrop community protected from COVID-19," said Hynd. "We are determined to give our graduates the safe, celebratory day they deserve and worked so hard to achieve."
The diploma pick-up will include each graduate receiving his/her diploma, diploma cover, souvenir program, honor cord (if earned) and a gift from the Alumni Association. There also will be official Commencement photographers present to take photos of the graduates in their regalia. Safety measures will be put into place: entrance into the West Center will be limited to graduates and Winthrop employees. Mask wearing, as well as social distancing, will be required of all participants.
Hynd, and other members of Winthrop's senior leadership, will be on hand at the diploma pick-up to congratulate the graduates, and faculty members have been invited to participate by wearing their regalia and remaining outside of the West Center to congratulate graduates from a safe physical distance.
Winthrop will convey degrees this December to about 300 students, 250 undergraduate and 50 graduate students.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at longshawj@winthrop.edu or at 803/323-2404.
