Penn will hold an in-person commencement ceremony for the Class of 2020 in May — two years after students graduated virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ceremony will take place on May 22, 2022 at 10 a.m. on Franklin Field. It will include the undergraduate Class of 2020 and graduate students from the Classes of 2020 and 2021, according to an email University administrators sent to the Penn community on Thursday. The Class of 2020 attended a virtual commencement ceremony on May 18, 2020, during which they officially received their degrees.
Members of the Classes of 2020 and 2021 who plan to attend the in-person commencement must register in advance. Family and friends of the graduates will also be invited to the ceremony at Franklin Field.
"Throughout the pandemic, our students worked hard and persevered with grace — and now we will honor their tenacity and wisdom by holding the graduation they so richly deserve," Penn President Amy Gutmann, Interim Provost Beth Winkelstein, and Vice President and Secretary Medha Narvekar wrote.
Penn previously planned to hold an in-person ceremony for the Class of 2020 in May 2021, but the event was ultimately postponed due to campus and local health guidelines that limited travel from outside of the Philadelphia area.
The Class of 2021 commencement ceremony took place in person at Franklin Field on May 17, 2021 for graduating seniors who participated in Penn's asymptomatic testing program and did not have housing or access to campus revoked due to a Student Campus Compact violation. All other graduating seniors, as well as family and friends, watched the ceremony online.
Commencement for the Class of 2022 will take place on May 16, 2022, a week before the postponed ceremony for the Class of 2020.
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