Virtual ceremony celebrates the resilient class of 2020
Commencement 2020 wasn’t what anyone pictured, least of all the thousands of graduating students, or the families that supported them.
This ceremony – like so many other things – was shaped by the cruel and sudden sweep of a global pandemic that left the campus locked down and online since mid-March. But students, faculty and administrators made the best of the situation, gathering online to celebrate the accomplishments of the Class of 2020.
For the virtual Commencement ceremony, the traditional graduation walk was replaced by a log-in, with graduates and their families tuning in online. The virtual event included speeches, music and congratulatory messages to honor a class that has finished the academic year under circumstances no one could have predicted at the start of the semester.
“I recognize this is no substitute for the day we all had planned for you at the Tsongas Center,” noted Chancellor Jacquie Moloney ’75 ’92 during the Friday evening online ceremony. She praised the graduates’ “hard work, resilience and entrepreneurial spirit,” noting such qualities will serve them well in the future. She challenged the graduates to turn “these very challenges into opportunities, just as you’ve done every step along the way.”
“The reality we are facing today doesn’t align with the optimistic future each of you represents,” said UMass President Marty Meehan. “But we will get through this.”
UMass Trustee Mary Burns ’84 told the graduates they had committed to “an important goal and you have achieved it while facing unprecedented challenges. Many have done this while working, meeting family responsibilities or performing community service.”
Commencement celebrated the 4,434 graduates from 45 states and 108 nations. some of whom had already shown River Hawk spirit by working the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, or volunteered their services in other ways.
The ceremony included pre-recorded messages of congratulations from the likes of sports figures including NBC Sports’ Kathryn Tappen, ESPN’s John Buccigross, and Mike Golic and Mike Golic Jr., and NESN Red Sox announcers Tom Caron, Dave O’Brien, Jerry Remy and Dennis Eckersley; TV personalities HGTV’s Taniya Nayak ’97, WBZ-TV meteorologist Sarah Wroblewski ’05, Food Network’s Robert Irvine, PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff, and MSNBC/Today Show political correspondent Steve Kornacki ’17 (H), veteran actor Christopher Cooper (H) ’16 and his wife, actress and author Marianne Leone Cooper ’16 (H); and Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart ’16 (H). Last year’s commencement speaker, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, also addressed the graduates.
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito encouraged graduates to be excited “for the journey you are about to embark on and all the good you will do.
“Your time at UMass Lowell has developed your skills, honed your instincts and set your compass for success in all the years ahead,” Polito said. “As this nation and this commonwealth move forward to defeat the virus, rebuild our economy and emerge better and stronger and more unified than ever before, we will be looking to you, the class of 2020. You are our problem-solvers, you are our innovators and you are our rising stars and we need you right now more than ever.”
Ed Goulet, who received his bachelor’s degree in business administration, watched from his home in Plymouth. He was planning to celebrate his graduation with family and friends at “a pretty big party” that his wife Christine had planned at a brewery, until the coronavirus scuttled all plans.
“This is pretty special to me,” said Goulet, a 2006 graduate of Coyle & Cassidy High School in Taunton. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Goulet works in as a marine technician in Mashpee, delivering and repairing boats. A few years ago, he decided to wanted to move into management, so he enrolled in online classes at UMass Lowell. He had tried other colleges before, but the fit was never “right.”
“I heard UMass Lowell’s online program was really good. I took two classes a semester while I worked and it was great,” said Goulet.
Stacey Nwachukwu of Boston earned a bachelor’s degree in public health, and will continue on at UML for her master’s degree in the fall. Under the current circumstances, she did not have plans for a big graduation celebration.
“This certainly isn’t what anyone expected,” Nwachukwu said. “It’s the first pandemic that I am old enough to understand. With time, things will get back to normal.”
Student speaker Rachel Record of Pepperell, Mass. praised her classmates’ “resolve … in the face of a global crisis.”
"We served as essential personnel in hospitals, grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies – and performed a whole array of other services. We continued programs like the String Project, for kids in the Lowell community, by making music online, something previously dismissed as impossible. We donated whatever we could to help control the pandemic, while working tirelessly to find technologies to stop it,” she said.
Record logged a perfect 4.0 grade-point average, one of more than 100 graduates to do so. The criminal justice major is heading to Boston’s Suffolk University Law School on a full scholarship.
Ending her Commencement address, Record quoted the Dropkick Murphys, Boston’s rock ambassadors and their song “The Warrior’s Code,” about the tenacity of Lowell native boxer Micky Ward.
“You make the best of the hand you’re dealt, because a quitter never wins,” Record said in quoting the lyric. “And the kid from Lowell rises to the bell.”
Immediately following Record’s address, a special video greeting from the Dropkick Murphys aired.
“Congratulations UMass Lowell,” bellowed front man Ken Casey from behind a green face mask. “We’re the Dropkick Murphys and we’re so proud of you!”
The virtual ceremony incorporated numerous traditional graduation elements. The UMass Lowell Chamber Singers performed the National Anthem (via Zoom), and the UMass Lowell Army and Air Force ROTC Color Guard presented the colors.
Following the universitywide Commencement, each school and college recognized individual graduates in separate ceremonies. Deans Eleanor Abrams (College of Education), Luis Falcon (College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences), Shortie McKinney (Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences), Noureddine Melikechi (Kennedy College of Sciences), Sandra Richtermeyer (Manning School of Business) and James Sherwood (Francis College of Engineering) led their respective school celebrations.
Earlier in the day, the Honors College held an informal celebration of its record class of 177 Commonwealth Honors Scholars. Over Zoom, faculty and staff announced three awards to students and played a video of the seniors’ graduation photos and honors capstone presentations.
Honors Dean Jim Canning and the Honors College faculty and staff raised a glass to toast all of the graduates as Canning urged them to repeat a three-part pledge after him: “Live well. Be adventurous. Laugh a lot.”