{"id":2025,"date":"2020-11-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/blogtest\/nov-20-dr-mcphee-reminds-graduates-guests-of-commencement-safety-protocols\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T15:19:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T20:19:36","slug":"nov-20-dr-mcphee-reminds-graduates-guests-of-commencement-safety-protocols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/nov-20-dr-mcphee-reminds-graduates-guests-of-commencement-safety-protocols\/","title":{"rendered":"NOV. 20: Dr. McPhee reminds graduates, guests of commencement safety protocols"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

As we near our Thanksgiving break and the end of classes for the Fall 2020 semester, I wanted to take a moment to thank each of you again for your dedication and commitment to keeping our campus safe. While it is impossible to fully escape the impact from COVID-19, your actions enabled us to provide a significant portion of our classes in-person and made our campus one of the safest in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

To those of you who will be graduating this semester, a heartfelt\u00a0congratulations<\/span>!\u00a0No one could have predicted when you arrived on campus that 2020 would have been such a challenging year.\u00a0Yet you found a way to succeed \u2013 through hard work, perseverance and an attitude that your weren\u2019t going to let the virus take something this important away from you \u2013 you demonstrated your true character and resolve.\u00a0I have no doubt the challenges we faced this past year will ultimately serve you well, as you certainly know how to succeed!\u00a0\u00a0Congratulations<\/span>\u00a0and best wishes to each of you in the years ahead. You are truly amazing!<\/span><\/p>\n

While our campus has managed to avoid much of the impact of the coronavirus, the same cannot be said for many of our surrounding communities, as infection rates continue to climb across much of the mid-state.\u00a0As we look forward to Saturday\u2019s commencement and the last days of the semester, I do want to remind you that we still need to adhere to our campus expectations and COVID-19 safeguards. I also want you to know that I have been in consultation with officials from Governor Lee\u2019s COVID-19 Unified Command Group and Dr. Lisa Piercey, the state\u2019s health commissioner, to review<\/span>\u00a0our preparations for commencement. They concurred with our strategy to move forward under our safety protocols, which\u00a0include:<\/p>\n