Dear Seattle University Community,

I hope you are all doing well as we move toward the end of the 2019-2020 academic year. Our School of Law, which operates on a semester system, completed their academic year earlier this month, and the rest of our undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff will follow suit in a few weeks as this unprecedented spring quarter concludes. What great demonstration of fortitude and flexibility this community has shown as we navigate these challenges together!

As previously announced, our students overwhelmingly expressed a preference for an in-person graduation ceremony over any sort of virtual commencement. At their request, we rescheduled our in-person commencement weekend for Oct. 9-11, 2020. Our law school is also looking to the fall for an in-person ceremony. We hope to gather together at that time to honor and joyfully celebrate our 2020 graduates, provided we can do so safely and consistent with state and public health directives. There will be more to come on that topic in the future.

We have all been touched by the Class of 2020 virtual festivities that have been assembled by other institutions and featured in the news and other public fora in recent days. Our School of Law found some creative ways to honor their graduates as their classes ended, and similarly, plans are underway to virtually recognize Seattle University’s graduates when our academic year concludes next month. Beginning soon and continuing through mid-June you will see a number of initiatives through which the members of the Seattle University Class of 2020 will be honored, recognized and celebrated. Please watch for this campaign of celebration over the next few weeks.

As we all continue to navigate these unprecedented times, I want to express profound gratitude to our Seattle University community—our students and their families, our alumni and our faculty and staff. Thank you for your commitment, adaptability and especially the many ways you are caring for one another and representing our university at its best.

We look forward to honoring our 2020 graduates, both in virtual and other ways in the more immediate future and, we hope, in person this fall. In the meantime, my best wishes and blessings are with you and your loved ones.

Sincerely,

Stephen V. Sundborg, S.J.
President