MORGANTOWN — Years of hard work and dedication will culminate with commencement ceremonies for graduating WVU students this weekend.
Roughly 3,500 students will walk as part of WVU’s Spring 2019 graduating class — tossing their tassels, walking the podium, and receiving their diplomas. An additional 1,100 students will graduate, but have chosen not to walk.
The festivities feature students from 16 different programs within the university, according to WVU Special Events Coordinator Lisa Martin.
“Starting Friday, we have three wonderful days of ceremonies, 16 ceremonies in total, through Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” she said on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town” with Dave Wilson and Sarah Giosi.
Parents and family members are arriving in Morgantown this week from around the country to see the long-awaited march to the stage — resulting in major traffic issues around the WVU Coliseum, downtown Morgantown, and a number of major roads around the region.
“Our venues, of course, are the Creative Arts Center and the Coliseum,” Martin said. “So anything over on that end of town I would say that if you’re local, I’d make some other arrangements.”
Martin said numerous law enforcement agencies will coordinate to try and minimize accidents and congestion.
“Our University Police is all hands on deck at that point,” Martin said. “And then we also work closely with the cities of Star City and Granville.”
More than two weeks worth of preparations are made for the commencement ceremonies, Martin said.
In addition to the ceremony, there will be opportunities to further the graduation experience through the use of a live video stream.
“We want to make this a very memorable occasion for our graduates and their families,” Martin said. “It’s hopefully not the last time they will be on our campus. We hope that they do return as alumns and we just want this to be the best day possible for them.”
The Reed College of Media will hold the first ceremony at the Coliseum at 9:30 a.m. Friday. The events conclude with The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences ceremony Sunday at 3 p.m.
For more information on Commencement Weekend, click here.
