Written by Destiny Henschel
On April 10, 2020, Concordia University Chicago (CUC) senior student Daniella Cozzi started an online petition aimed to change the recently announced graduation date and setting. Earlier in the day CUC’s President, Dr. Russell P. Dawn, sent a video to the CUC undergraduate students stating that the Spring 2020 graduates “deserve better” than the current situation, being an online commencement ceremony on May 9, 2020. Dawn continued to offer an invitation to the graduates to walk across the stage in the Fall 2020 Commencement ceremony at the end of the year. Hoping and praying to share the senior’s stories, Dawn mentions that he is doing everything in his power to make May 9th a day to remember.
Simultaneously, members inside and outside of the CUC community are coming together to sign this petition for a rescheduled commencement ceremony. The petition provides supporting facts of nearby colleges such as Dominican University, Loyola University Chicago, and Illinois Wesleyan University postponing their Spring ceremonies to August and September. Cozzi proposes the same idea that CUC move their ceremony to a date in August or September as well.
More than just Cozzi, senior students mention their appreciation for the effort put into this unique situation, but they also feel like they are getting cheated out of a milestone in their life. With the four hardest years of their lives, the Spring 2020 graduates earned the opportunity to walk the stage, uniquely with their best friends.
In signing the petition, concerned friends and families also have the opportunity to leave a comment for President Dawn to see. These messages consist of senior students expressing their exigency to walk the stage in August or September. Other seniors write their sorrows for the lack of space for family members at the projected ceremony, who they now have to limit. Some comments apologize to the Fall 2020 graduates, who now have to share their big days and have to limit the number of their family members that can attend the Fall ceremony as well.
Within six hours of the petition going live, nearly 400, out of the requested 500, people signed and supported the petition to change the date of the 2020 Spring Commencement ceremony. In the end, however, the Class of 2020 wants the general public and President Dawn to know they are eternally grateful for the opportunities being provided but know that they deserve so much more.
