WINONA, Minn. – Winona State University graduated nearly 1200 spring students in person, unlike last year’s virtual pandemic event, but with the plague still lingering, family and friends were kept at bay and watched remotely. A “live watch party,” the university called it. There were two in-person name-reading ceremonies in which graduates walked through the traditional faculty and staff Applause Tunnel and then heard their names read as they walked across a gymnasium stage — at 8:30 a.m. for nursing, health sciences, science and engineering and at 11:30 a.m. for business, education, and liberal arts. After each ceremony the grads headed to an outdoor courtyard to to each ring the 275-pound Commencement Bell, which could be heard across the city.
Speakers
> Scott Olson, university president.
> Michael Desch, Class of 2021, student speaker.
The university has not had a celebrity commencement speaker since 2010. The tradition was cancelled after Michelle Bachmann, a 1978 grad, suggested she be invited to speak. The university anticipated a campus boycott if the right-wing radical Bachmann were invited and sidestepped a revolt by discontinuing the custom.
Virtual ceremonies
The 2021 Winona State commencement marked the third with a major virtual component due to the Covid pandemic. The wholly virtual December celebration reached nearly 60,000 people across 29 countries, the universu=ity said. .