X

SUNY Potsdam hosts 200th commencement online

Posted 5/28/20

POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam recognized the achievements of nearly 900 graduates in the College's 200th Commencement on Saturday, May 23. The virtual ceremony and accompanying watch party was filled with …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

SUNY Potsdam hosts 200th commencement online

Posted

POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam recognized the achievements of nearly 900 graduates in the College's 200th Commencement on Saturday, May 23.

The virtual ceremony and accompanying watch party was filled with comments and tributes, as graduates, families, students, faculty, staff and alumni shared their memories and congratulated the Class of 2020.

Streamed online via Facebook and YouTube, the event helped the SUNY Potsdam community to come together from far-flung places for a celebration of achievement and unity that honored the efforts of those receiving their bachelor's and master's degrees -- until the College is able to safely hold an in-person ceremony. In her remarks, College President Dr. Kristin Esterberg acknowledged the unique challenges the graduates have faced in the rapid transition to distance learning, made necessary by a pandemic that has also taken a broad emotional toll.

Esterberg highlighted the skills and traits the graduates can now bring forward to help solve pressing issues, and she pointed to the importance of science in confronting disease and suffering, of ethical and thoughtful citizenship, and of the increasingly vital ability to differentiate between truth and fiction.

This year, local businesses joined in celebrating the graduates by displaying posters with messages of congratulations, and alumni from coast to coast sent handwritten notes to the graduates as part of Commencement packages that also included posters and laudatory letters from campus leaders and state representatives. Graduates are also being sent videotaped remarks by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson.

To find out more about Commencement at SUNY Potsdam, visit http://www.potsdam.edu/commencement.