In-person graduation ceremonies will be held on campus this month, College has said.
The ceremonies will be held in a marquee in Front Square and attendees will be limited to graduands and two guests each, all of whom will be required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test.
In an email statement to The University Times, Trinity Media Relations Officer Catherine O’Mahony said: “Trinity will hold live graduation events from 11-20 August in a marquee on campus.”
“A group chaired by the Registrar has been working on the planning for a number of months and those plans have been approved by the Trinity Living with Covid Oversight Group”, she said.
“There will be 60 or so graduands per event and each will be allowed to bring two guests, with both graduands and their guests being required to produce either proof of vaccination or evidence of a recent negative PCR test.”
“There will be two events per day”, she added.
There have been no in-person graduation ceremonies held in Trinity since March 2020.
2020 graduands were given the option to either graduate online in November or defer their graduation to a live event at an unconfirmed date.
In an email to graduands last September, College’s Registrar Prof Brendan Tangney wrote that “though there is a possibility that some live face-to-face ceremonies could be held if restrictions are significantly eased, it is not possible to offer live ceremonies in the Autumn session”.
Instead, a number of virtual commencement ceremonies took place in late November. Students who graduated in this format were conferred in absentia, with the degree parchment posted to the person’s home address following the ceremony.
In March 2020, The University Times reported that all in-person commencement ceremonies were cancelled, with graduations to be live streamed instead.
An email sent to all staff and students, signed by Senior Lecturer Kevin Mitchell and College Secretary John Coman, said that “public ceremonies are not possible” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. College contacted graduands set to receive their degrees in April to ask their permission to be conferred in absentia.
Mitchell and Coman said College hopes to live stream the ceremonies “so that graduands can hear their name being entered into the University record”.
