St. Olaf College, a Minnesota school, says it will host graduation ceremonies for minority students only this year amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
“Self-identified domestic students of color, international students and LGBTQIA+ students” at the Lutheran school get to celebrate their graduations this year during three separate virtual ceremonies scheduled for May. Meanwhile, the rest of the campus has to wait until next year as the general graduation ceremony has been “rescheduled for a date in late May/early June of 2021” as a result of the COVID-19, per the school’s website.
The special graduations for minority students were announced last week via an email from the the school’s Taylor Center For Equity and Inclusion.
Campus Reform, the outlet that originally reported this story, reached out to St. Olaf and confirmed that no plans presently exist for a graduation ceremony to be held this year for the entire class of 2020. Several seniors at the school also told Campus Reform that they have not been made aware of any such event.
A spokesperson from the school has noted that graduation plans may evolve as the semester draws to a close.