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Message from the President: Commencement Postponement

04.02.20

Dear LMU Community:

With courage and grace, you have adapted swiftly to the sudden and disruptive changes in how we experience one another and our LMU education. I am grateful to our students, faculty, and staff for your resilience and creativity while we adjust to this temporary way of educating Lions amidst a wave of uncertainty, loss, and grief. Each of you has risen to the challenge of this moment, and you inspire me with hope for our human future.

As we continue to follow public health guidelines to ensure our community’s well-being and safety, we have sought to discern with our community about significant questions, including when and how we celebrate the milestone of LMU commencement. After careful reflection, we have decided to postpone the Class of 2020 commencement ceremonies to a time when we can be together—on the Bluff with loved ones, with our faculty, and with our staff—so that our entire community can gather to honor, gloriously, our graduates with the splendor that they deserve.

I thank our LMU community, and particularly the Class of 2020, for your passionate engagement in our discernment process. Your input was essential in determining how commencement will be celebrated this year. I appreciate your flexibility and fortitude, and I realize that despite the rational foundation of this decision, it still stings that our most cherished annual tradition will not take place in May. But in no way need that stop us!

Please note the following facets of our postponement decision:

  • We are currently exploring alternative dates for the 2020 commencement ceremonies. Our society’s ongoing, collective commitment to conquering COVID-19 through social distancing measures will help us determine an optimal time to schedule the ceremonies. Please know that we will give you and your families advance notice to plan for the occasion.
  • Because we are eager to acknowledge our students for their accomplishment, we are also planning virtual celebrations in May. Although these celebrations will occur on the originally scheduled dates (May 9 for undergraduate; May 10 for graduate; May 17 for LMU Loyola Law School), they will not replace the forthcoming commencement ceremonies. Rather, they give us a head start in honoring our graduates.
  • We will share details as soon as they are available. In the meantime, please visit the 2020 LMU Commencement Ceremonies FAQ and the LMU Loyola Law School FAQ.
  • All eligible graduates will receive their diplomas in the mail in June 2020, as is customary, to support their academic, professional, and personal plans and needs.
  • As always, I urge you, please, to continue to check our Coronavirus Website for the latest information.

Class of 2020, your LMU education has helped form not only the person you are today, but the person you will continue to become, and the impact you will have in creating the world we want to live in. How we deal with our challenges today, how we unite, and how we care for one another will bring about a greater tomorrow. I am confident that this charge is in no better hands than yours.

Together, you and I will exalt our Class of 2020’s accomplishments in new, exciting, and now-multiple ways worthy of this rite of passage—honoring our Class of 2020’s enduring zeal and distinction, and our community’s collective strength and love.

For and with you, I remain eternally grateful. #LMUTogether

Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D.
President