Ohio State will celebrate virtual commencement on Sunday
Apple CEO Tim Cook will deliver the commencement address
The Ohio State University will host a virtual commencement celebration on Sunday, May 3, to honor undergraduate, master’s, professional and doctoral candidates.
More than 12,000 diplomas are expected to be awarded. The exact class size will be announced later this week.
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 hour-long commencement ceremony will follow at noon. The ceremony will be broadcast on WOSU and will livestream at https://commencement.osu.edu/. Upon conclusion, video of the full ceremony will be made available to public and commercial television stations across Ohio at http://go.osu.edu/vcosu.
The ceremony will include President Michael V. Drake and a small number of university officials in traditional commencement regalia at Ohio Stadium (practicing social distancing) and a virtual commencement address delivered by Apple CEO Tim Cook. The student speaker will be Kate Greer, who served as president of Undergraduate Student Government this year.
Also during the ceremony, the university will award the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to Cook. The university will confer Distinguished Service Awards 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.
In light of COVID-19 restrictions on large gathering, no graduates will be physically present, and the university cannot accommodate on-site media coverage of the ceremony. Reporters are encouraged to cover the ceremony remotely.
The university announced plans on April 3 to hold the virtual commencement. Graduates will receive their degrees and a copy of the commencement program in the mail at their permanent address. The university will hold a physical recognition event at a later date when it is safe to do so. Members of the Class of 2020 will be actively involved in the scheduling and planning of that event.
