As finals week comes to a close, the university is finding virtual ways to celebrate graduating seniors in honor of what would have been their commencement weekend.

The Honors Program’s senior theses are on display online there will also be a virtual brunch to celebrate the graduating seniors on May 9. Dubbed “Party with the Pack,” the toast to the Loyola graduating class of 2020 will feature a message from President Tetlow, student performances and special guests.

The College of Business is sending out a mystery gift package to all graduating seniors—undergraduate, graduate and online—to be mailed out on May 18, according to the Assistant to the Dean of the College of Business, Amy Keeler.

“We know this can’t replace those events,” Keeler said. “But we hope they enjoy the gifts and that they know how happy we are for them.”

The graduation event for the College of Arts and Sciences is the Honors Convocation, in which they honor mostly graduating seniors with departmental awards, according to Uriel Quesada, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

The departments are going through their regular awardee selection process, and the Dean’s Office will make the names of all students and their awards public over the summer, according to Quesada.

“We cannot have our traditional ceremony this year, but it does not mean that departments and the Dean’s Office are not going to award our students,” Quesada said.

In the College of Music and Media, the School of Communication and Design hosted a farewell for seniors, welcoming students, staff, friends and family to a call on Zoom to virtually celebrate, according to Sonya Duhé, outgoing director of the School of Communication and Design.

“You have succeeded through unprecedented times,” Duhé said in honor of the school’s graduates. “We are all so very proud of you.”

Despite all of the virtual celebrations happening on what would have been graduation weekend, Loyola still plans to hold an in-person commencement on Aug. 7 and 8, including many traditional graduation events.

The university also started the hashtag #LOYNO20 for students to celebrate their graduation and time at Loyola on social media.