Texas A&M University-Texarkana held it’s first in-person commencement exercises since the December 2019 ceremony last weekend, hosting 4 ceremonies on campus spread over two days. The first event took place Friday, May 7th at 6:00 p.m., while the remaining ceremonies were held Saturday, May 8th at 10:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 4:00 p.m. Nearly 400 students took place in the events that were held inside the Lois & Cary Patterson Student Center.
The commencement exercises celebrated graduates from the spring 2020, summer 2020, fall 2020 and spring 2021 classes. Because of the extra participants and to facilitate social distancing inside the gym, the university decided to hold multiple commencement exercises for the first time. “We were thrilled to be able to offer this in-person ceremony for our graduates,” said TAMUT President Dr. Emily Cutrer. “We also wanted them to be able to share it with their family and friends. To accomplish this as safely as possible we divided the graduates into four groups by academic major.” Each graduate was able to invite a number of guests, who were spaced out throughout the gym and required to wear masks.
The university also provided overflow viewing areas on campus and streamed all four ceremonies live on the web. With more than 1600 online viewers, the commencement exercises shattered previous online viewing records. The ceremonies can be viewed online by visiting https://portal.stretchinternet.com/tamutadmin/ and clicking the “On Demand” tab.
