A few weeks ago, a UNC apparel store in Chapel Hill was having a sale, and since I was getting tired of wearing the same sweatshirt every day during quarantine (I'm currently in my childhood home with only the clothes I packed for spring break), I decided to buy a new one that says "Carolina Alumni." I've been wearing it ironically since then because I was still taking classes online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, something that's been on my mind lately as I wrap up my studies is when exactly can I call myself an alum of the University of North Carolina?
The vast majority of the time, the answer to this is simple; you're an alum once you've graduated. Once you turn your tassel at that big ceremony with your fellow classmates, you're all officially alumni and no longer students.
But for those of us whose graduations have been postponed (or even canceled altogether) during this time, we don't get that. So when are we considered "finished" with college?
Is it on our last day of classes? But most of us still have exams to take.
Is it after we've taken our last final? But not everyone does this at the same time.
For myself, only two of my four classes this semester have final exams. I'll be done with both of these by Sunday, but the other two are a different story. For one of them, my public relations major capstone, my class worked in groups on a semester-long project to create a PR campaign for the Carolina Hurricanes. These have all been turned in and are considered to take the place of a final exam for this course, but there's still a winning team to be selected and announced to the class. So even if I've turned in all of my work, that course doesn't "feel" done to me.
For my other remaining exam-less class, we've spent the semester researching political communication. This started earlier this year by taking a trip to the Iowa Caucuses and has continued by doing interviews with voters and campaign staffers. Though this class does not have a final either, we're still having one last meeting via Zoom on Tuesday to wrap the course up. It's a small group of ten students and two professors, but we've become incredibly close throughout the course of this tumultuous semester and election season. Even though this class might be "over" soon, I feel like our conversations through group messages will continue on.
Let's say I decide to consider myself "done" with college on May 6th, once all UNC finals have been taken. I still haven't had a graduation ceremony to serve as a culmination of all my work over these last four years. Though UNC has made mentions of holding a makeup ceremony in August, October or December, do I wait that long to call myself an official graduate?
I never thought a seemingly simple online shopping purchase for a sweatshirt would spark such a philosophical debate in my mind. Personally, I don't think I'll feel like my college experience has been completed until I have that graduation ceremony, whenever it's going to be.
Until then, though, I'm going to keep wearing the sweatshirt anyway.