Dr. John C. Bowling appeared on stage at Centennial Chapel today to address the Class of 2020. Saturday, gradates of not one but two graduate classes were scheduled to take the stage during morning and afternoon ceremonies.
“COVID-19 turned all of our plans upside down and inside out.” Olivet Nazarene University’s President said Saturday morning. “Therefore we cannot be together today.”
The University’s President extended initiations to all graduates to attend a in person ceremony on August 15th, but continued to confer graduates today with electronic certificates and paper diplomas being sent out next week.
The President had a special message for graduates looking ahead in a COVID-19 world:
“There will be the lingering effects of the COVID-19 crisis with its economic instability and social insecurity. It’s also a world that too often, embraces an upside down view of what’s right and what’s wrong. In what’s acceptable, and what is not. In many ways the wider world has lost its sense of mooring. It’s adrift in the cross currents of culture. Even so, in the days to come, you will have to find your place, to take your place, in that world.”
You can watch the full address below:
