This weekend Whitworth University will send its graduates off to the big bad world. The north Spokane school will hold its commencement ceremonies on campus for the first time since the 1970s.In recent years, Whitworth has held its main commencement ceremony in the Spokane Arena. In this Covid world, though, the university has joined others in celebrating outside.
This year the setting is Whitworth’s football stadium, the Pine Bowl, says Emilee Langbehn-Bosh, Whitworth’s assistant registrar and commencement coordinator.
“It’s very exciting. It’s also an incredible amount of work. Our campus community has just pitched in. Everyone from the top all the way down, so many different departments, so many different constituencies have just pitched in to try and help and make this an incredible year because it’s unprecedented for us to do it here, without a professional staff and without all the professional support we get from the arena," she said.
Whitworth is holding three ceremonies, one for this year’s graduate students Saturday morning, one for this year’s undergrads on Sunday morning and one for all of last year’s graduates on late Sunday afternoon.
Langbehn-Bosh says the university will allow faculty to walk in their traditional processional and students to move across the stage in a socially-distanced way.
