Students across the University System of Maryland are graduating. But there are no auditoriums and arenas packed with people, cheering and taking photos as their children, grandchildren, spouses, parents and friends cross the stage. There is no stage. But there are virtual ceremonies online, produced with as much fanfare as our universities can create.
This isn’t the way graduates wanted to celebrate their enormous accomplishment. It isn’t how our universities wanted to celebrate their graduates. But COVID-19 has subordinated what we want to do in service of what we need to do — for the safety of our students, faculty, staff and neighbors.