Ohio State to confer nearly 13,000 degrees in historic virtual commencement – another new record
Class is largest for the sixth consecutive year
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The Ohio State University |
Editor’s note: The class size has been updated.
The Ohio State University will award a record 12,967 degrees and certificates to its largest-ever graduating class during a historic virtual commencement on Sunday, May 3.
The hour-long commencement ceremony will begin at noon. It will be broadcast on WOSU and will livestream at https://commencement.osu.edu/. It will also be available to most of the state’s public television stations through The Ohio Channel. At the conclusion, video of the full ceremony will be made available to public and commercial television stations across Ohio at http://go.osu.edu/vcosu.
A pre-ceremony program with special messages from graduates and deans in Ohio State’s colleges will be livestreamed beginning at 11:30 a.m. at https://commencement.osu.edu/.
The 2020 graduating class size is the largest for the sixth consecutive year, surpassing previous records of 12,213 in 2019, 11,907 in 2018,11,734 in 2017, 11,235 in 2016 and 11,040 in 2015.
The increase in the size of the graduating class corresponds with annual increases in the quality and talent of the freshman class and increases in graduation rates.
Ohio State President Michael V. Drake will preside, and the commencement address will be given by Apple CEO Tim Cook. The student speaker will be Kate Greer, outgoing president of Undergraduate Student Government.
Also during the ceremony, the university will award the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, in absentia, to Cook. The university will confer Distinguished Service Awards, in absentia, to Philip T.K. Daniel, the William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Education Administration (emeritus); E. Christopher Ellison, the Robert M. Zollinger Professor Emeritus in the College of Medicine; and Timothy Gerber, professor emeritus of music.
