SSU holding 200th commencement ceremony on Friday

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Friday kicks off a month scheduled full of commencement ceremonies across the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry.

Hundreds of students will walk across the stage to receive their diplomas Friday at Savannah State.

This celebration comes exactly two weeks after a shooting on campus at the T.A. Wright stadium. But campus officials say the shooting did not involve any students and the individuals involved were not affiliated with the campus.

And Friday, students are looking forward to celebrating years of hard work.

The school will follow their typical security protocol that they have on campus – just like any other regular day.

The stadium will be full as there are more than 365 students receiving degrees, joined by their family, friends and staff members.

This is a milestone year for Savannah State University as they are celebrating their 200th commencement ceremony.

“This institution has seen many trials from its very beginning which was so educate persons of color in an environment when everyone did not feel we should have the opportunity to be educated and 132 years later we are still doing that and we are confident we will be doing it 132 years from now so we are just so excited for this 200th commencement,” said Sametria McFall, Interim Provost of Academic Affairs.

Serving as the commencement speaker is retired U.S. Navy Captain Donnie Cochran who was the first African American to be selected to the Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squad and also an alumnus of Savannah State.

He will be speaking to the graduating Class of 2022 Friday at 10 a.m. for their ceremony.

The event will also be livestreamed. Be prepared for traffic in this area to be increased Friday morning.

The rise in larger celebrations come as COVID restrictions continue to lift.

According to Georgia Department of Public Heath’s website the latest numbers we have from Chatham County are from Wednesday of this week, which shows 21 total cases reported that day. Compare that to four months ago on the first week of January - there were 339 cases reported in one day.

The Chatham County numbers are in line with case numbers in Georgia, which means a similar trend for students across the state.

Because of those numbers, Savannah State has been able to relax some of their COVID guidelines for commencement ceremonies.

Throughout the pandemic they continued to host in person graduations but with limited seating.

For a commencement ceremony in 2020, students were given four tickets a piece to invite friends and family, but Friday each student received 15 tickets.

Which comes with a lot of excitement, especially for graduate student Tyler Holloway.

“I’m most excited to see my grandparents in the bleachers, they weren’t able to come to my undergrad one because I only had 4 tickets so seeing them in the audience is just going to be so great, I’m going to be giving one of the student speeches so they are so excited to see me up there and I am ready to share that moment with them,” said Holloway.

Ahead of the ceremony Friday, students were encouraged to get a COVID-19 test and also everyone is encouraged to wear masks.

Copyright 2022 WTOC. All rights reserved.