Los Rios campuses are reintroducing an in-person graduation ceremony for Spring 2022.
This time around, the Cosumnes River College graduation will be outdoors and graduates who have an expected graduation term of Summer 2021, Fall 2021 or Spring 2022 are allowed to participate.
“It is going to be well organized and the reason we’re holding it outside is because we want to make sure that you know, we are protecting their [students’] health and their safety,” said Associate Vice President for Student Services Tadael Emiru.
Emiru, who’s in charge of the commencement ceremony and giving remarks to graduates, noted that the planning and logistics of this event have been challenging, but “so far,” everything has been going smoothly.
Typically CRC’s graduation ceremonies are held in the gymnasium, but Emiru said it was decided that the ceremony this year would be in the stadium.
Last year during COVID, CRC had a “car-mencement” where students drove to campus and didn’t get out of their vehicle.
“We weren’t in a position to decide that we’re going to have in-person commencement at the time because we were still in the midst of dealing with delta variant back in October and November,” Emiru said.
Having not had an in-person ceremony in so long, Emiru said being able to hold the commencement outside has been quite exciting.

Emiru stated that students should expect to come into a very positive, supportive and celebratory environment.
Vice President of Institutional Equity, Research and Planning Claire Oliveros, who will also be speaking at the ceremony, said it’s exciting to make the shift to an in-person outdoor ceremony because there has not been an outdoor ceremony in almost a decade.
Oliveros also said she’s trying to be open to the guidance of the planning committee and be available wherever needed.
She mentioned that up until May 19, there are cultural achievement ceremonies that are designed to support, celebrate and recognize the success of students from identity based communities.
Twenty-year-old English major Ilea Farrall said she’s sort of excited for the graduation ceremony.
Farrall, who graduated high school in 2020 said her ceremony was “kind of awful” and that she and her classmates watched each other graduate from their living rooms.
“I’m very curious to see what an actual in person graduation is like and how that will work out since I didn’t get to experience that in high school,” Farrall said.
Oliveros stated that this outdoor celebration is going to be filled with so much emotion.
“It’s just going to be a really momentous occasion that’s going to take our breath away because we haven’t been able to see each other in this way, in a long time,” Oliveros remarked. “It’s going to be filled with emotion and celebration we all may or may not even have known we needed until we get there.”
Click here for more information about the spring 2022 commencement ceremony.