CARmencement 2021 (and 2020

Commencement, from a distance

With the sounds of honking, cheering, and Indigenous drumming wafting across campus, the Mills College Class of 2021 celebrated an entirely new kind of Commencement (or CARmencement?) on Saturday, May 15.

Following a virtual ceremony in the morning—the first in the College’s history—that celebrated 377 undergraduate and graduate students, Richards Gate opened for the first time in more than a year to those beyond campus residents and essential staff. Members of the Class of 2021 could pack as many family and friends into one car as they liked, and after everyone inside completed COVID paperwork, they toured campus on a set route decorated with signs and cheering faculty, staff, and alumnae.

On the heels of the CDC announcement just days before that fully vaccinated individuals didn’t need masks, the previously set rule that only the graduate could leave the vehicle was relaxed, allowing for small gatherings and photos at campus hotspots. Socially distanced lines quickly grew on the Meadow and at Mills Hall to snap pictures.

In addition to the departing students, the day was also an emotional one for Provost Chinyere Oparah, who left the College at the end of the academic year for the University of San Francisco. Before joining up with President Elizabeth L. Hillman to pose for photos with new alumnae/i, she delivered the “Charge to Graduates” at the conclusion of the virtual ceremony, an honor usually reserved for the president.

“The success we celebrate today is not just that you completed all your coursework and earned your Mills degree— though that is a huge accomplishment—we are also celebrating your resiliency, your strength, and your ability to overcome adversity,” she said. “In the last year, you did lab work wearing PPE, you conducted sheltered-in-place research, and you navigated Zoom classes—with and without bad hair days. You, the Class of 2021, have proved to be unstoppable.”

The virtual ceremony also included remarks from student speaker Jessica Greely ’21 as well as Alicia Garza, co-creator of Black Lives Matter, who was initially scheduled to deliver the Commencement address in 2020.

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LUAN STRAUSS

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 1 Crowds lined up for photos on the Meadow.  2 Nadia Bourdoud ’21 and a happy family member pose

by her entry on the Senior Wall outside the Tea Shop.

 3 Members of the Commencement Steering Committee

decorated signs and placed them around the parade route to greet and cheer graduates.

 4 Chalyna Lazo, MPP ’21, poses for a photo with Provost

Chinyere Oparah and President Elizabeth L. Hillman outside Mills Hall.

 5 Professors Helen Walter, Ana Mostafavi, and Jenn Smith

cheer for graduating students driving their way through campus by Cowell Building.

 6 Lynne Huntting ’61 shows off her alumna pride in red,

the color for her class as well as the Class of 2021.

 7 Indigenous drummers provided powerful accompaniment

to the day’s joyful proceedings near Lisser Hall.

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 1 Volunteers enthusiastically cheered on Class of 2020 graduates as they

made their way to the Oval.

 2 Angelica Edwards, MBA ’20, decked out for the CARmencement celebration.  3 El Campanil provided gorgeous scenery as 2020 alumnae/i posed for

photos.

 4 Family members were welcome guests on campus, as this dad brought

his daughter along to commemorate the moment.

 5 Brenda Miles ’20 (third from left) and Rebecca Galicia ’20 (second from

right) rest for a moment with their families.

 6 The AAMC provided a cheering section outside the Student Union,

with President Viji Nakka-Cammauf, MA ’82; Michelle Balovich ’03; and Lynda Campfield ’00, SES ’01, MA ’02.

 7 Cynthia Jackson ’88, special assistant to the provost and manager of

academic operations, helped many an attendee with their regalia.

 8 Three happy members of the Class of 2020 posing for their families

outside Mills Hall. From left: Josephine Vander Klay ’20, Tia Crawley ’20, and Maggie Lindenthal-Cox ’20.

JAMIELLIN KELSEY

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Finally, the following Saturday (May 22), the Class of 2020 was able to come onto the Mills campus for the first time since their final year at the College was interrupted and their Commencement delayed by the pandemic.

The original plan, to hold an in-person ceremony in conjunction with the Class of 2021, was similarly disrupted as the COVID case rates did not decline enough in Alameda County in sufficient time. But dozens of these recent alums still streamed onto campus for their own CARmencement under brilliant skies, posing for photos and receiving their diploma covers (after the documents themselves had already been mailed out!) with a feeling of relief and closure, as they could finally tie up the loose ends of a most unfortunate year.

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