By Matt Hirsch
For two years, Brooklyn College’s commencement ceremony was forced online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. BC’s class of 2022 will finally be able to celebrate their graduation at the Barclays Center as per an update from President Michelle Anderson.
“We are hosting our 2022 Commencement Ceremony on Tuesday morning, May 31, at Barclays Center!,” read the letter from President Anderson. “Our Student Affairs Office will circulate details about the event shortly, but after two years of online ceremonies, we are thrilled to be returning to an in-person event to celebrate.”
Students who graduated in the summer, fall, and winter of 2021, or are expecting to graduate after spring and in summer 2022, are also eligible to participate in this year’s commencement ceremony.
“I’m very excited to participate in an in-person graduation because it will allow all my efforts to be realized,” said Gigi Polizzi, a graduating senior. “Working remotely for the past two years has made it hard to distinguish between work, school, and regular life. So this ceremony will be a celebration of the perseverance in the most challenging time of my life”
There is a checklist of tasks for students who want to participate in the ceremony. Notably, graduating students are required to subscribe to the Commencement E-Newsletter for updates about the ceremony.
Each student may request up to four guest tickets. Details regarding reserving the ticket will be announced toward the end of March, according to the college’s commencement information page.
“I feel excited to actually have a graduation [ceremony] in person. When I graduated [from] BMCC during the pandemic, it was online, and the experience wasn’t exciting. It felt like a lecture and people just getting rewarded,” said Juwan Wyatt, who is graduating from BC this spring. “But now I feel like it’s going to be a special feeling, walking across the stage getting the degree and hearing everyone scream you did it!”
Those who wish to have their graduation photo appear in the 2022 Broeklundian yearbook need to make an appointment with Thornton Studios on West 29th Street in Manhattan by June 1.
The Barclays Center played host to Brooklyn College’s commencement ceremony from 2017 to 2019. Before 2017, commencement was held on the East Quad. During BC’s inaugural ceremony at the Barclays Center in 2017, Senator Bernie Sanders gave a keynote speech to the graduating class.