Convocation like no other: U of W holds virtual grad

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This article was published 22/10/2020 (1802 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Graduation has never looked quite like this: instead of caps, gowns and smiling faces filling the Duckworth gym, a small, masked-up camera crew and a handful of university administrators gathered in the historic convocation hall to livestream the University of Winnipeg’s convocation to graduates, families and supporters across the world. 

The University of Winnipeg’s 117th convocation took place virtually Thursday (and will continue Friday), with university administrators leading the ceremony live over YouTube and Zoom for the first time in history. 

“Convocation is one of those life events, like a wedding or a funeral. It’s one of those major life ceremonies that is so important to people,” said Chris Minaker, senior executive officer of external engagement, moments before digital proceedings kicked off Thursday afternoon.

“We really wanted to make sure that we were creating something special that people could engage in and could feel like their incredible accomplishment was being honoured appropriately in this time of COVID.”

The university’s spring graduation, scheduled for June, was postponed as provincewide gathering restrictions owing to the COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on festivities.

“We optimistically in the spring thought ‘COVID will be fine, we’ll be able to do it in person,’ but as we were getting closer and closer it was like, that’s not a possibility, therefore we need to put the effort in starting now,” said Chris Minaker, senior executive officer of external engagement, moments before digital proceedings kicked off Thursday afternoon.

Months of work and planning were needed to organize the fall event, which combined February, June and October convocations into a two-day event split by faculty into three sessions.

The university’s virtual celebrations included an array of digital perks, including stylized Zoom backgrounds, animated GIFs, grad-themed social media displays and a “dad-appropriate” Spotify playlist curated by the university’s communications team.

On the mainstage, just three university representatives stood, each more than the required six-feet apart, intermittently stepping up to the two podiums set in the middle of convocation hall.

A projector displayed the live event to crews milling about the dome-ceilinged room as interim president James Currie, newly inaugurated chancellor Barb Gamey and registrar Colin Russell took turns speaking to the digital audience.

“We knew that we wanted to anchor the ceremony live, we didn’t just want to pre-record,” Minaker explained.

Around half of the ceremony was made up of pre-recorded speeches and segments from a variety of deans, students and university community members. Russell himself spent more than 10 hours recording each student’s name, accurately, for the digital stage-walking portion of the event.

Minaker said the university is doing its best to encourage engagement over social media and it’s hoped the experience will be enriched for students able to sit with their families throughout the ceremony.

Graduating students were encouraged to share their favourite university memories with the #UWinnipeg2020grad tag across social media platforms.

More than 1,500 students crossed the virtual stage over the course of the three ceremonies. The first session had more than 500 unique log-ins to the livestream, though Minaker expects families watched the celebrations together.

Administrators took moments to acknowledge the unusual circumstances of the 2020 graduation, but ultimately encouraged students to look ahead to their next chapters with excitement and innovation. “This is what we do, this is it. The students are coming through here and they get that piece of paper… (that) represents blood, sweat, tears, challenge and all the work that goes into that. That’s what it is when they cross that stage, virtually or physically,” Minaker said.

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers