For the Class of 2021, graduation may have felt like a long time coming, but the COVID-19 pandemic is leaving one last reminder of how little has been normal in their recent college years.
Across the state, colleges and universities have come up with myriad innovative and socially distanced ways to celebrate the accomplishments of college seniors. All are compromises made in lieu of what students, families and school officials were truly hoping for: a safe return to auditoriums and stadiums with teary-eyed grandmas, overzealous dads, silly string and champagne.
Some schools are limiting in-person ceremonies to students, with a livestream option for family and friends. Others are allowing between two and six guests per graduate. There are colleges taking a hybrid approach, with a virtual ceremony but an in-person diploma pickup or drive-thru celebration. And there are those who will spend yet another year celebrating graduates almost entirely virtually.
Wisconsin college graduations: In-person, hybrid, drive-thru for 2021
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From livestream to drive-thru, Wisconsin college graduations vary
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KELLY MEYERHOFER
Wisconsin technical colleges could more easily establish general education degree programs under a Republican bill that the University of Wisconsin System says would threaten the existence of some of its smallest campuses.
The Dane County Farmer s Market opened Saturday, on Willow Island, for in-person shopping for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Wisconsin
The bill introduced earlier this month would eliminate a longstanding requirement that technical colleges receive approval from the UW Board of Regents before starting associate degree programs in arts and sciences on their campuses.
Of the stateâs 16 technical colleges, just six offer such two-year programs, which are the most common stepping stone for students to go on to a four-year university and earn a bachelorâs degree. Other technical colleges have tried establishing the programs in recent years but have historically received rare support from the UW System.