Chabot College’s 58th Annual Commencement Ceremony will be conducted online this year due to the shelter-in-place order preventing large public gatherings. Previous commencements have been livestreamed before, but this will be the first to be online-only.

The Commencement will be hosted on a website that will become available to view on Saturday, May 23, at 9 a.m. The ceremony will include videos of speakers and a slideshow of the graduates.

Graduating students must have submitted their information and a photo of themselves in the cap and gown by Wednesday, May 13, at 8:59 p.m. to be included in the slideshow. Students who did not order a cap and gown were allowed to send an appropriate alternative photo.

Graduates could log in to the website by using their Zonemail accounts. The Commencement website is being operated by the media company Envision Pro AV.

The petition-to-graduate due date was extended to April 17 from the original date of April 1. The due date to order a cap and gown provided for free this year was April 20.

“We just wanted to do our best to celebrate the amazing success of our graduates despite the shelter in place,” said Dr. Matthew Kritscher, Vice President of Student Services.

All students were invited to participate if they have met or will meet graduation requirements for a Certificate or Degree at the end of Fall 2019, Spring 2020, or Summer 2020 semesters.

Still, some remain disappointed about the substitution.

“I feel like it’s not really a celebration. I feel like it should have been postponed…,” said Navin Bansal, a graduating Chabot student.

Speakers for the day will include Chancellor Ronald Gerhard, College President Susan Sperling, and “Senate Leadership,” according to the website. The keynote speaker, Danny Munoz, is a graduating student who is part of Alpha Gamma Sigma, Indigenous Peoples Club, and RISE, as well as a tutor.

“When I was asked [to be the speaker], I felt that I should do it because where I come from, stuff like this doesn’t happen every day,” said Munoz. “I feel like I can shine a light on an underrepresented and misunderstood population. I’m formerly incarcerated, and I want everyone to know that we can overcome the stigma.”

For more information, see the official Commencement information page at the Chabot website: