June Commencement Ceremonies

Apr 21, 2021 —

As with all the decisions made this past year at Fresno City College, keeping our students and employees healthy and safe is first and foremost the most important factor. As the situation with the COVID crisis would worsen, become better, only to worsen again, we were hard pressed to ease our restrictions on in-person learning and events, including Commencement.

We are fortunate that we are now seeing much improvement in the Fresno County metrics giving us hope that we will be able to move towards some normalcy in our routines. However, we are not out of the woods yet and as a result we are still following guidelines from the Fresno County Public Health Department on how to proceed. Decisions we make today regarding our Commencement in the future are based on current protocols…and are subject to change.

Therefore, after much consideration and extensive exploration, we have determined that we can safely hold in-person graduation ceremonies while still observing COVID restrictions such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing.

We are pleased to announce that Fresno City College will host two ceremonies that will include graduates from this year’s class and graduates from the Class of 2020. Additionally, we heard from students who expressed hesitation about participating in a large group, in-person ceremony. Therefore, we will continue with our plans to include students virtually in the commencement ceremonies. This way we can safely accommodate ALL of our Ram graduates.

In order to accommodate a larger number of graduates and allow time for students to purchase their regalia, we will host two ceremonies on June 23 and June 24 at 8 p.m. each night. Thanks to the support of the City of Fresno our outdoor commencement events will be held at Chukchansi Park. As a bonus, we will be able to end the celebrations with fireworks!

We will divide the ceremonies according to our Ram Pathways. If you are unsure which pathway is yours, here is the link to the Ram Pathways webpage.

June 23: Business; Health and STEM
June 24: Arts, Communication and Language: Culture, Education and Society; Tech and Trades

Beginning this Friday, April 23, all graduates will receive an email containing a link through which they can confirm their attendance to the in-person celebration. Because we are required to have a list of all attendees in advance, no graduates will be allowed to RSVP after May 14 or attend the ceremony without a reservation.

At this time, due to COVID Preventive measures related to capacity, graduates will be allowed to bring two (2) guests each. Graduates who RSVP by the deadline, will receive instructions by email on how to reserve tickets for themselves and for their two guests. The names of the guests must be provided.

Professional photographers will be taking the graduates' photos.

Fresno City College is also pleased to announce that the class of 2021 is the largest class in the history of the college. The class of 2021 includes 2,295 graduates. The class of 2020 was 2,006. These numbers are a great indication of the dedication and perseverance of Fresno City College students who were determined to succeed in the face of adversity. They didn't let the hardship of going to college during a pandemic hold them back. We congratulate them and we look forward to celebrating their great achievements in June!