Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, UAB School of Medicine will hold a virtual Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 16, starting at 1 p.m. The ceremony will stream live online at https://go.uab.edu/SOMCommencement, where a recording of the ceremony will also be available after May 16.
The ceremony will be a combination of pre-recorded remarks and “live” Zoom segments. It will begin with a class slideshow, followed by a welcome and opening remarks from Senior Vice President for Medicine and Dean Selwyn M. Vickers, M.D., FACS. Otis W. Brawley, M.D., the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Oncology and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, will share a pre-recorded address as the featured speaker. The event will also feature video messages from select faculty, remarks by Class President Bruce Pittman, and the presentation of schoolwide awards. Each graduate’s name will be announced, and Kerry S. Bevis, M.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and last year’s faculty winner of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, will lead the class in reciting the Hippocratic Oath. Dr. Vickers will end the ceremony with the declaration of degree and closing remarks.
While they may not be walking together in a typical commencement ceremony, students will have the traditional regalia. The Medical Alumni Association (MAA) partnered with the Office of Medical Student Services (MSS) to provide 192 graduation boxes for the Class of 2020 students. Each box contains a tam and tassel, a doctoral hood, any cords the student earned, photo booth props, Class of 2020 sunglasses, a confetti popper, and letters of congratulations from the MAA and MSS.