‘We have EARNED our degrees’: CCU commencement not canceled after students petition
Coastal Carolina University’s graduating Class of 2020 has endured multiple class cancellations due to hurricanes and now a global pandemic, but the prospect of students missing out their commencement ceremony was too much to imagine for some.
The university initially announced Thursday evening it would cancel on-campus spring commencement ceremonies due to coronavirus, leading to a student petition urging CCU officials to reconsider.
The petition, which garnered more than 1,500 signatures by Friday afternoon, states: “Many seniors have already bought a cap and gown, and had made plans months in advance. Being a college senior, you put your blood, sweat, money, and tears into your education. We have EARNED our degrees, and we deserve to walk across that stage.”
CCU President David DeCenzo’s online message has since been changed to indicate that the graduation ceremonies have been postponed, not canceled.
University spokeswoman Martha Hunn told The Sun News that plans were already being developed to provide opportunities for the spring 2020 graduates to have a traditional ceremony at a later date, and the revised wording is only for clarification. A virtual ceremony is also being developed for students who may not be able to return to campus, she added.
That opportunity to walk across the stage is particularly important for Tyler Montgomery, a Summerville native who is set to become the first person in his extended family to ever graduate college.
“The more I think about it, the more choked up I get,” he said about Thursday’s announcement, speaking to The Sun News before the change was made to postpone ceremonies instead of canceling them.
Montgomery has been at CCU six years after switching majors and said it’s the first place he’s found friends he can really count on, and the COVID-19 spread has really thrown a wrench into a lot of their senior year plans, including his fraternity’s big graduation event.
“It feels like being in a horror movie,” he said. “It seems like there’s no end.”
The university is also where Montgomery met his fiancee, Megan Reidenauer, who is also planning to graduate after this semester, and the two of them are currently at her parents’ home in New Jersey waiting until it’s safe to return to their house in Conway.
Reidenauer, who is finishing her fifth year at CCU after also switching her major, said her friends and family have seen how hard she’s worked, and not being able to walk on stage with them cheering her on would be a major disappointment.
Finding a way to return to campus for a postponed commencement ceremony will likely be difficult, she said, but she plans to do so no matter what.
That sentiment was echoed by Reidenauer’s mother, Maureen, who said she and the rest of her family would drop everything to see Megan and Tyler, who she considers a son, walk across the stage in their caps and gowns.
Maureen Reidenauer, who noted Megan was adopted, said at least six members of their family, including Megan’s birth mother who she reconnected with a few years ago, had rented a condo in Surfside Beach for graduation weekend.
“We’ve been there through all the ups and downs with them,” she said.
Maureen Reidenauer, a professor at Rowan University in New Jersey, said she understands and appreciates the difficult decisions CCU is facing, and nothing will change their positive perception of the university, but missing out on commencement ceremonies would definitely be disappointing.
“We should be waiting before we throw in the towel,” she said.
