St Xavier’s College has postponed its convocation from January 16 to February 28. The ceremony will be held on the campus but on a smaller scale because of the Covid pandemic.

Although 2,700 students (undergraduate and postgraduate) have graduated, the college will invite only the 35 medal recipients to receive the honours in-person. “The convocation ceremony is usually held on January 16 every year, which also marks our foundation day. But this year’s pandemic has changed the situation temporarily and the ceremony has been deferred to February 28,” principal Father Dominic Savio told Metro.

Swami Atmapriyananda, the vice-chancellor of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, will be the chief guest.

The ceremony will be live streamed on digital platforms like the college’s Facebook page and YouTube.

The recipients who to go the campus will have their temperatures checked with thermal guns and security and volunteers will ensure all protocols are followed, a college official said.

The college will courier the degree certificates. The students can also go to the campus in a staggered way to collect their degrees from their department. “The college will upload the digital version of the degree certificates on the National Academic Depository so that the students could download them,” said Dominic Savio.

Why has the convocation been deferred?

The odd-semester (first, third and fifth) exams that are usually wrapped up by December got delayed and will be held in January, because of which the college thought it prudent to hold the ceremony in February, a college official said.

“This year, the academic session started in September instead of July because of the Covid-induced shutdown. As a consequence, the exams will be held only in January. Teachers and other officials will be busy conducting the exams so we thought it would be wise to hold the ceremony in February,” the official said.

Father Savio said they wanted to push back the event expecting the situation to improve by late February. “According to some health experts, the virus is expected to get more virulent during the winter. So, we wanted to choose a time that would be well beyond winter,” he said.

If the medal recipients want to attend the convocation with their families, they have to alert the college authorities so necessary arrangements to maintain distancing can be made, another official said. “We want to keep the congregation comprising medal recipients, their family members, teachers, officials within 200 in keeping with the norms set under unlock VI guidelines.”