Hiram College is pleased to announce plans for in-person commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2021 and Class of 2020 this spring. A ceremony to celebrate the Class of 2021 will be held on Saturday, May 15, while all 2020 graduates will be celebrated during a ceremony on Sunday, May 16. Both ceremonies will be held at 2 p.m. on their respective days in the College’s Martin Field House.
In light of the current guidelines and restrictions, the College will require all attendees––including graduates, guests, and college officials––wear face coverings and maintain social distance. Only the graduating students will be permitted inside the Field House for the ceremony. Each graduate will be given the opportunity to invite two guests, who will be able to watch the ceremony via livestream on the video scoreboard located at the College’s Charles A. Henry Field.
The ceremonies will also be live streamed on www.hiram.edu to provide additional access for those unable to attend in person. The commencement program booklet will be available in a digital format for those interested.
Hiram College President David Haney, Ph.D. will deliver the commencement address. Dr. Haney assumed his role at Hiram in September 2020, after serving for two years as the President of Centenary University, a private liberal arts University in Hackettstown, New Jersey. Prior to his presidency at Centenary, Dr. Haney served four years as the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Emory & Henry College, in Southwest Virginia. Dr. Haney holds a Master of Arts degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Macalester College, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
For students in the Class of 2021, a pinning ceremony for graduating nursing students will be held at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 14 in Hayden Auditorium, and an induction ceremony for students named to Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest honor society for the liberal arts and sciences in the United States will be held on Saturday, May 15 at 10:30 a.m. in the Kennedy Center Ballroom. To limit the number of attendees, student participants may invite only two guests to attend the ceremony.
Additional details regarding commencement and a detailed breakdown of the schedule can be found at www.hiram.edu/commencement.