With the campus closed due to COVID-19 and students completing their semester with online classes, The University of Texas at Dallas will mark the May graduation of the class of 2020 with a virtual congratulatory message from President Richard C. Benson.
An in-person commencement ceremony will be scheduled once the campus can reopen and safely return to normal activities.
Benson will recognize a record 4,935 graduates this spring. Along with his video message, a digital commencement program will be posted on Monday, May 11.
The congratulatory message will include greetings from the provost and the deans of the University’s eight schools. The digital program will allow each student who applied for graduation to see their name in print.
Each of the University’s graduates will also receive a special celebration package in the mail later this month. When they receive their box, students are encouraged to share their moments of celebration using #utdgrad on social media channels and emailing photo@utdallas.edu.
The University is expected to award more undergraduate degrees — 2,850 — this spring than ever before. One hundred twelve doctoral degrees have been certified, and 1,973 master’s degrees are expected to be conferred.
The president’s virtual message will recognize 1,986 students expected to receive degrees from the Naveen Jindal School of Management and a record 1,248 from the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
Also being recognized are 522 students from the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 496 from the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, 209 from the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication, 206 from the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, 168 from the School of Interdisciplinary Studies and 100 from the School of Arts and Humanities.
Multicultural Achievement Ceremony
The Multicultural Achievement Ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 9, via livestream on Microsoft Teams. The ceremony will recognize graduating Cultural Scholars, Diversity Scholars and Undergraduate Success Scholars, as well as those graduating seniors who have been engaged in programming with the Multicultural Center. Each student who participates in the ceremony will receive a ceremonial gift by mail. For more information, email assistant director Destiney Tolbert.
Lavender Graduation
To honor LGBT+ and ally students and to acknowledge their achievements and contributions to the University, the Galerstein Gender Center will mail gift packages to this year’s Lavender Graduation participants. The gifts include a rainbow cord, a certificate, a T-shirt and a gift from alumni relations. The center plans to host a small reception on Dec. 1 for 2020 Lavender graduates. For more information, email the Galerstein Center.
Sustainability Service Honor Graduates
The Office of Sustainability recognized its newest graduating class of sustainability service honorees. Each honoree has performed a minimum of 250 hours of service that directly correlates with U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. Meet the 2019-2020 honorees.