I know I'm a bit of a pollyanna, and among the things we're all weary of is hearing about the unexpected up-side of zoom... But we just had our recognition ceremony for our graduates (two years' worth, in fact, since last year's got just a prerecorded "memento"), and, while more students might have shown up, those who came were fittingly fêted.
We had a complicated "run of show," with three student and one faculty speakers, a student musical interlude, and the reading of all graduates' names by their department chairs, with intricate zoom choreography of cameras off and on and off again so that everyone might be seen as their name was read, but it worked well enough. It
was a collective effort and felt like one! And it brought our community together in a way we haven't been for fifteen months.
And... it also allowed of something traditional graduations (not to mention socially distanced ones) don't: you could see people close to each other, even as they were in reality hundreds of miles apart... and best of all, you often got to see graduates' friends and family with them, most movingly when one of the student speakers mentioned her "mother and abuela" - and there they were behind her, serious, proud. We've got your back, too!
I know I'm a bit of a pollyanna, and among the things we're all weary of is hearing about the unexpected up-side of zoom... But we just had our recognition ceremony for our graduates (two years' worth, in fact, since last year's got just a prerecorded "memento"), and, while more students might have shown up, those who came were fittingly fêted. 
We had a complicated "run of show," with three student and one faculty speakers, a student musical interlude, and the reading of all graduates' names by their department chairs, with intricate zoom choreography of cameras off and on and off again so that everyone might be seen as their name was read, but it worked well enough. It 
was a collective effort and felt like one! And it brought our community together in a way we haven't been for fifteen months. And... it also allowed of something traditional graduations (not to mention socially distanced ones) don't: you could see people close to each other, even as they were in reality hundreds of miles apart... and best of all, you often got to see graduates' friends and family with them, most movingly when one of the student speakers mentioned her "mother and abuela" - and there they were behind her, serious, proud. We've got your back, too!