Mississippi University for Women will hold a virtual commencement ceremony and in-person degree conferral ceremonies for spring 2021 graduates.
The W’s spring 2021 commencement exercises will be held April 23-24. The exercises will begin with a virtual convocation to celebrate the achievements of students, faculty and The W community. Degrees will be conferred at one of six departmental degree conferral ceremonies to be held in Rent Auditorium in Whitfield Hall on the university’s campus.
Graduates may stream the convocation ceremony any time after noon Friday, April 23. Due to public health measures, there will be no on-campus facilities for livestream broadcast. The ceremony will broadcast from a link on the university’s homepage, www.muw.edu.
In order to keep graduates and their guests safe, each graduate will receive three tickets for their conferral ceremony. A graduate’s three tickets will be seated together in consecutive seats as a group with physical distancing between groups.
There will not be any general admission seating.
Commencement and conferral schedule are:
Friday, April 23, 2021
■ 12 p.m. – virtual convocation and celebration of achievement (stream available at muw.edu/live)
■ 2 p.m. – pinning /degree conferral ceremony for the Associate of Nursing program
■ 5 p.m. – pinning /degree conferral Ceremony for the Bachelor of Nursing program
Saturday, April 24, 2021
■ 10 a.m. – degree conferral ceremony for the College of Arts and Sciences & Culinary Arts Institute
■ 12:30 p.m. – degree conferral ceremony for the Department of Business & Department of Legal Studies
■ 3 p.m. – degree conferral ceremony for the School of Education & Department of Speech-Language Pathology
■ 5:30 p.m. – degree conferral ceremony for the Department of Health and Kinesiology
During the virtual ceremony, the university will present the Kossen Faculty Award of Excellence, the Faculty Member of the Year and the Harvey Craft Award. The W will also recognize the Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award Winner.
Rita Felton will serve as the featured commencement speaker. Felton is the first African-American female to serve as command chief master sergeant for the 14th Flying Training Wing, Columbus Air Force Base. In this role, she advised the wing commander on mission effectiveness, professional development, military readiness, training, utilization, health, morale and welfare. She has retired from the United States Air Force with more than 30 years of honorable service. Felton is the founder and CEO of Accentuate Life Ministries and Felton Consulting Group, LLC.
All COVID-19 protocols and procedures will be observed by all graduates and guests during Commencement 2021 exercises including wearing cloth face coverings over the nose and mouth at all times while in line or in buildings. Additionally, each venue will be cleaned between individual ceremonies and venue capacities will be observed.
All commencement plans are subject to change at any time due to health concerns and there is an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 in any public place where people are present. Any changes will be communicated directly to those graduates attending the ceremonies and through the commencement website.
Graduates are encouraged to share their celebratory photos through The W’s social media channels with #TheBlueForYou and #LongBlueLine hashtags. Photos and videos also may be submitted to [email protected].
Commencement exercises for May 2020, August 2020 and December 2020 graduates will be conducted Friday, Aug. 6. Details will be forthcoming.
Any changes will be communicated directly to those graduates attending the ceremonies and through the commencement website, muw.edu/commencement.
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