Feature Stories Campus Events All Stories

W&L to Hold Online Conferral of Degrees Ceremony Thursday, May 28 In-person Commencement exercises for the Class of 2020 are scheduled to take place next spring.

Washington and Lee University will hold an online event at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 28, 2020 to confer degrees on the graduates of the Class of 2020.

The online event will be held on the original date for the university’s undergraduate Commencement ceremony, which was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The in-person, traditional Commencement exercises for W&L’s undergraduate Class of 2020 are scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 23, 2021.

“While the conferral of degrees event is not intended to be a replacement for the in-person Commencement ceremony our seniors so richly deserve, we are determined to celebrate our graduating students virtually on their original Commencement date,” said W&L President Will Dudley.

Many of the graduating seniors have been involved in planning the online event, which will include greetings from faculty and staff, photos from students, and the conferral of individual degrees.

“Our graduating seniors have much to be proud of, and in the spirit of making the most of a challenging situation, we are pleased to have the opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments twice,” said Dudley. “We are most excited to gather with them on campus next spring for their traditional Commencement ceremony, but in the meantime, we look forward to gathering online to award their degrees and share fond memories of their time at Washington and Lee.”

The Conferral of Degrees event can be viewed here: https://livestream.com/wlu/virtual-ugrad-2020.