GEORGETOWN — The widespread Hoya enthusiasm surrounding this year’s commencement was disrupted this morning after an announcement by the Office of the President that the aforementioned ceremonies would be held exclusively in Farsi.  The announcement stated that “In order to achieve an in-person graduation ceremony we had to make some sacrifices, including limiting the number of guests allowed, shifting many individual events online, and completely eliminating English language programming.”

This shift was due to both cost and public-health concerns. All Georgetown ceremonies are initially planned in Farsi and then painstakingly translated into English for public consumption, at considerable cost to the university. Given declining tuition revenues, it no longer made financial sense to carry out the translation process. There were also concerns that the process posed a public health risk, since Degioia insists on whispering all source text moistly into the ear of the translators for security purposes. 

Out of consideration for the proportion of the Georgetown population that is not fluent in Farsi, Georgetown announced that all student WeWork memberships would be expanded to include locations in Tehran, Isfahan, and Tabriz. 

The commencement planning process is ongoing, and more details will be released as they come and as the public health situation continues to develop. The Office Of The President concluded its statement by saying “We are also developing contingency plans should it become necessary for us to adjust for public health reasons, and as such recommend that graduates and their families prepare to learn Amharic as well.”