Arizona State University celebrated its newest graduates virtually on Monday, marking the most extraordinary graduation in the history of the institution.
The half-hour recording took the place of the spring 2020 commencement ceremonies that were to be held at Sun Devil Stadium (undergraduate) and Desert Financial Arena (graduate), where thousands of students and their families were going to mark their graduation. The in-person commencement transitioned to a virtual ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ASU switched to remote learning and teaching in mid-March.
The Class of 2020, more than half of whom are Arizona residents, included about 11,200 undergraduate students (about 4,200 of those online), more than 5,000 graduate students, more than 900 military-affiliated students and more than 6,500 students graduating with honors, the largest cohort to hold that distinction. Among the newest ASU alumni were nearly 700 Starbucks College Achievement Plan graduates and five students making up the first graduating cohort of ASU's partnership with ride-share company Uber,
Monday's virtual ceremony included elements of a typical commencement: “Pomp and Circumstance,” the university mace, and congratulations and encouragement for ASU’s nearly 16,400 graduates from several distinguished speakers.
MORE: Meet notable graduates from around the university
ASU President Michael Crow thanked the students for their perseverance through uncertainty and complexity.
“This is a hugely important day. Students’ lives are moving forward,” he said. “They completed successfully their last term, their projects, their activities, engaging in hundreds of thousands of video interactions and millions of minutes of Zoom time.
“It’s been a fantastic moment of opportunity and creativity.”
Crow said that the message of the times is, “Be prepared.”
“You need to be prepared to enhance your learning. You need to be prepared to enhance your innovation capabilities. You need to enhance your voice with new ideas and new ways of getting things done. You need to be prepared to create,” he said.
“Be prepared to do what’s necessary to help us address all the complexities that our modern world confronts us with.”
Ruth McGregor, former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, told the graduates that they have been tested.
“You have already demonstrated courage and the will to continue as you completed your degrees under the most unexpected and difficult circumstances imaginable,” she said.
“You are fortunate because you already know that you can overcome obstacles and continue to follow your path.”
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ASU President Michael M. Crow addresses the graduates during the virtual commencement video, telling them that the message of the times is, “Be prepared.” “You need to be prepared to enhance your learning. You need to be prepared to enhance your innovation capabilities. ... You need to be prepared to create,” he said.
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Ruth McGregor, former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, told the graduates that they have been tested. “You have already demonstrated courage and the will to continue as you completed your degrees under the most unexpected and difficult circumstances imaginable. You are fortunate because you already know that you can overcome obstacles and continue to follow your path.”
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Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie G. Bunch III congratulated graduates. "You have worked hard, and you have changed. And now you are ready to provide the kind of leadership and creativity this country needs." He charged the graduates to find the greater good, the way they can help the nation be better.
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Luis Alberto Moreno — Thunderbird School of Global Management alumnus, former ambassador and president of the Inter-American Development Bank — said feelings of anxiety and uncertainty are universal for all graduates, not just during the pandemic. He reminded the new grads that the world that emerges from the pandemic will need the smart, creative people to shape and lead the changes ahead.
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The ceremony included a video look back at the past four years of students' experiences, including painting the "A" on "A" Mountain white, a first-year student tradition the first weekend after classes begin in August. Now known as Echo From the Buttes, the activity signifies a fresh start to the college experience. (The A is repainted its usual gold before the first home football game.)
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The Sept. 8, 2016, launch of OSIRIS-REx was part of the video memoir. The spacecraft carried the OTES, or OSIRIS-REx thermal emission spectrometer, built entirely on the ASU campus by Regents Professor Phil Christensen with a team of 26 engineers and scientists. The spacecraft's seven-year mission is to study the asteroid Bennu and grab 4 pounds of materials from its surface.
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Phase III of Sun Devil Stadium's renovation and reinvention as a year-round destination for events such as concerts, yoga classes, movies on the field and more was completed in summer 2018. Phase III marked the completion of all general public areas of the stadium.
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Football wasn't the only sport highlighted in the "look back" video: Olympian Michael Phelps — sporting some of his dozens of gold medals — popped out of the Curtain of Distraction during a men's basketball game in January 2016.
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The work of the AZLoop hyperloop team — made up of students from ASU, Northern Arizona University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University — made an appearance in the video. Hyperloop is a new form of proposed mass transit that promises to hit speeds of up to 750 mph, and the team place among the top teams in the August 2017 competition sponsored by SpaceX.
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The ASU women’s golf team won its eighth NCAA team championship, the most among Division I women’s golf programs, in May 2017, behind the play of NCAA individual champion Monica Vaughn.
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Arizona audiences got their shot to see "Hamilton" at home when the hit musical took the stage at ASU Gammage in February 2018.
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ASU's Barrett & O’Connor Washington Center had its grand opening in the nation's capital in March 2018. Read a blog of the opening week's many festivities here.
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On Nov. 2, 2019, the Phoenix CubeSat was launched into space onboard the Antares II rocket, which remained at the International Space Station until the following January, when it deployed its CubeSats. The Phoenix — the work of more than 100 ASU students and researchers — will study the heat radiation from the selected cities to determine their urban heat island effects over two years.
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Hayden Library reopened in January 2020 after a $90 million reinvention for the 21st century, with an eye toward maximum accessibility, engagement and support for the university’s growing student population.
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And of course, the effects of the pandemic were part of the commencement video as well, as students reflected on the unprecedented situation. (See the full Sparky #StayAtHome video here.)
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Students such as biomedical engineering honors student Kyle Williams were spotlighted. Williams shared his immediate plans for celebrating commencement, including spending time with family and "just enjoying this time."
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A number of campus and community figures, including Hanna Salem, president of the Undergraduate Student Government on the Tempe campus, shared congratulatory messages for the students.
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The a cappela Devil Clefs closed out the video with the ASU alma mater at the virtual 2020 ASU commencement. Nearly 16,400 baccalaureate, master's and doctorate students received their honors through online ceremonies due to COVID-19 social distancing precautions.
The speakers also acknowledged the sadness of the circumstances.
Leah Jones, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Association at ASU, who is earning her PhD in sustainability, asked the graduate students to close their eyes and imagine being together at commencement.
“As we open our eyes, this image is not what surrounds us,” she said.
“We’re at home, maybe with family or maybe we’re alone. We’re preoccupied by the context of our world, by the way it’s distorted our lives and that of people around us.”
She recognized that graduates may be feeling disappointment and frustration.
“Even if you don’t feel in a celebratory mood, I encourage you to pause even for just a moment, and be proud of all that you accomplished,” she said.
School of Music student Ben Cortez recorded a new version of the ASU alma mater.
Luis Alberto Moreno, a graduate of the Thunderbird School of Global Management and the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, told the graduates that although the outlook is uncertain, they should consider the big picture.
“You have to remember that you have earned a degree at a highly respected university in what is the world’s most advanced nation,” he said. “Only the tiniest fraction of humanity has access to the kind of opportunities you have had at ASU.”
He said that the Class of 2020 is graduating at a turning point in history.
“This crisis that we’re experiencing, with all of its heartbreaking costs, might well give birth to profound social, economic and political change — changes that we can only begin to imagine,” he said.
“And the world that will emerge from this challenge will need smart, energetic and, more importantly, creative people like you to shape and to lead those changes.”
The ceremony included highlights of the past four years of the Class of 2020, including Sun Devil Welcome in August 2016, the renovations of Sun Devil Stadium and Hayden Library, Olympian Michael Phelps joining the “Curtain of Distraction,” “Hamilton” at ASU Gammage in 2018 and the rapid move of everything online this past semester.
In addition to the virtual commencement, colleges and schools also are hosting virtual convocations on May 11-12. At those smaller ceremonies, there will be a special moment for each graduate with their name, photo, degree and a comment from them about their future.
Today’s graduates also can attend the December 2020 or May 2021 in-person commencement ceremonies if they wish.
The end of the commencement video included a performance of the alma mater by the Devil Clefs student group, with scenes from the ASU community over the past two months: making personal protective equipment, researching the virus in labs, treating patients, collecting donations and painting the “A” blue to honor health care workers.
Then the maroon and gold balloons dropped onscreen.
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