Celebrate with winter 2020 graduates during virtual commencement ceremony

UW–Madison will confer nearly 3,000 degrees this Sunday at its winter 2020 commencement ceremony, to be held virtually due to the ongoing pandemic. The virtual ceremony will be released at wisc.edu/commencement beginning at 11 a.m. central time on Dec. 13.

The ceremony will be prerecorded, not live, and will be available to the public. No password is needed. The video will remain available on the website so that people can watch the ceremony at a time most convenient to them.

“As we did in the spring, we will honor our graduates and their accomplishments with a virtual ceremony,” says Chancellor Rebecca Blank. “Later, we will find an opportunity for these graduates to celebrate in person with family and friends.”

Preliminary estimates show 2,932 degrees will be conferred Sunday (2,117 undergraduate, 526 master’s and 289 doctoral). The virtual commencement ceremony will include remarks from several people, including Chancellor Blank, soccer standout and UW–Madison alumna Rose Lavelle, and alumni speaker John Felder, an organizer and spokesman for the 1969 Black Student Strike.

Student speaker Sven Kleinhans will give remarks on behalf of his fellow graduates. A few of the notable winter graduates can be found in this roundup.

Additionally, honorary doctorates will be awarded to cancer researcher V. Craig Jordan and distance learning pioneer Michael G. Moore, both of whom did groundbreaking work early in their careers at UW–Madison.

Tony Award-winning Broadway star and UW–Madison alumnus André De Shields will close the ceremony with a special rendition of “Varsity.”

As a special gift, any graduate renting or purchasing a cap and gown is receiving a free celebration kit: a UW-branded face covering, a confetti popper and a refrigerator pennant magnet.

Those watching can comment on the commencement proceedings on YouTube Premiere, as well as on social media with the hashtag #UWGrad. For more information on commencement, please see wisc.edu/commencement.