Bring back in-person graduations. ‘They’re not making effort,’ says UW Tacoma senior
For 35-year-old Michael Villalpando, these past four years he’s spent plugging away at a college degree couldn’t have happened in a more hectic season of life.
A non-traditional student with a 14-year paramedic background, Michael kept working part-time while co-managing his pandemic-imprisoned household and finishing his degree in the healthcare leadership program at University of Washington Tacoma.
Now, celebrating this milestone with an in-person graduation ceremony couldn’t be more important for the UWT senior and his young family.
So when UW joined most Washington colleges and announced that commencement would be held virtually for a second year, Michael and his wife, Jordan, were angry.
“We’ve gotten married, built a house, had two children, and this man has still gotten a degree and been on the dean’s list just about every quarter at UWT,” Jordan Villalpando told me. “It means a lot to cross that stage and wear that cap and gown.”
Having a flesh-and-blood ceremony doesn’t just mean a lot to older students like Michael who are embarking on second careers.
It means a lot to more traditional students like my 22-year-old daughter, who’s graduating in June from the UW Seattle business school despite barely setting foot on campus for more than a year.
My daughter, like Michael and many others, powered through two years of community college, including summer school; transferred to a four-year program; buckled down to complete countless papers, presentations and tests (both live and via clunky remote connections); and kept their eyes on the prize of a bachelor’s degree.
Naturally, they’re upset that Washington colleges and universities aren’t holding in-person graduation events.
If high schools are striving to do it, why can’t post-secondary institutions find a way?
“We’ve been sitting in front of a computer now for a full year, plus how many months? And paying painful tuition. And they’re not even making an effort to make it happen,” Michael told me.
Last month he participated in a university-sponsored Zoom “community conversation” where graduating students were invited to offer commencement ideas. He left frustrated, convinced the university merely wanted to make virtual graduation more personable, not actually try to hold it in person.
Gov. Jay Inslee has granted some leeway for graduations, despite his famously cautious pandemic management.
Amid the backlash to Inslee’s announcement this week that three counties, including Pierce, were rolling back to Phase 2 restrictions, one piece of good news attracted little notice: Graduation ceremonies could continue under Phase 3 conditions with a health and safety plan.
Up to 600 people can gather at a larger indoor venue or as many as 9,000 at a large outdoor venue. Indoor graduations are limited to 50 percent building capacity; outdoor graduations are limited to 25-50 percent, depending on venue size.
Granted, this may not accommodate the largest university graduating classes. But it should provide enough space to assemble individual programs, majors or other cohorts.
This week the governor voiced concerns about a possible fourth wave of COVID-19 if Washingtonians aren’t careful. But there are proven ways to mitigate the risks of group activities, and for Inslee it’s all about his new catchphrase: “Take it outside.” Commencement certainly can be done that way.
UW officials held firm this week when I asked about graduation ceremonies. You’d think the much smaller campuses in Tacoma and Bothell could have more flexibility to gather, but that’s apparently not the case.
Banners, signs and photo backdrops will be installed around campus next month, a UWT spokesman told me. The closest thing to pomp and circumstance is a drive-through event — details yet to be determined.
The UW isn’t the only local school to give up on a second year of in-person commencement. Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland has scheduled a pair of virtual ceremonies on May 29: one for this year’s graduating class, and a makeup event for last year’s class.
Two-year colleges, including Tacoma Community College and Bates and Clover Park technical schools, are following a script of pre-recorded ceremonies and drive-through parades.
Sorry, but these well-intentioned efforts capture the flavor of a once-in-a-lifetime rite of passage like canned Spam captures the flavor of Filet Mignon.
Kudos to the University of Puget Sound, the one local college determined to bring graduates together. By dividing commencement into two outdoor ceremonies on May 16 for this year’s and last year’s classes, UPS says it’s adhering to the governor’s guidelines.
Granted, doing something similar at the UW is a more complex division problem. But it didn’t exactly sneak up on them.
“I genuinely think it’s a lack of creativity,” Jordan Villapando said. “They’ve had a year to think about this and come up with contingency plans.”
She’s a teacher for Tacoma Public Schools, where high school graduation is in limbo. Plans to return to the Tacoma Dome after a one-year hiatus may not pan out, a school district spokesman told me, adding that ceremonies might move outdoors.
Either way, Jordan, a history teacher at Tacoma School of the Arts, credits the district for doing what colleges have failed to do.
Washington has turned the corner on this virus. Kids are back in classrooms. Every high school and college senior is now eligible to be vaccinated.
The Class of 2020 was denied savoring a major life turning point, for legitimate public health reasons. Unless things take a sharp turn for the worse, the Class of 2021 should not have to make the same sacrifice.
Matt Misterek has been the TNT’s opinion editor since 2016. Reach him at matt.misterek@thenewstribune.com