See the timeline of past coronavirus developments at St. John’s here.
All commencement exercises are canceled, according to President Conrado Gempesaw’s internal email Mar. 30. “… We regret to inform you that we will not be able to hold the spring semester 2020 Commencement Exercises and related events for graduate and undergraduate students as originally scheduled,” it states.
“To our graduating students, we fully understand how profoundly disappointing this news may be for you. Commencement is the culmination of years of hard work and is a special moment to celebrate the completion of your studies. However, the health and safety of everyone should be our priority in making this difficult decision,” he President Gempesaw continued.
The University plans to find another way to honor graduating students of all St. John’s colleges at a later date.
Many states are issuing stay-at-home orders for their populations, some through April 30. Meanwhile, the death toll in New York state due to COVID-19 has exceeded 1,000 as of Mar. 30. Hundreds of those deaths have occurred in New York City.
Resident students who have left their belongings in dorms have not been able to return to retrieve them, and they will also not return for any commencement exercises. Information on coronavirus protocol is regularly updated on stjohns.edu.
