UC Davis ran low on water as extreme heat halted graduation ceremony, chancellor says
UC Davis added infrastructure like misters, water stations and “cooling buses” a week ahead of Friday’s botched graduation ceremony, but ran low on drinking water as the event ran far behind schedule and as paramedics responded to dozens of heat-related episodes before noon, university Chancellor Gary S. May acknowledged in a Monday letter to students, faculty and families.
Extreme temperatures brought an abrupt end to graduation proceedings at the university’s football stadium before well over half of the day’s roughly 2,300 undergraduates had the chance to cross the stage.
Temperatures in Davis reached the mid-90s late Friday morning ahead of forecast highs near 105 degrees in the capital region. Downtown Sacramento hit 104, according to the National Weather Service.
A spokeswoman said the campus received 36 heat-related medical aid calls during Friday’s ceremony, and seven attendees had to be taken to hospitals.
“Commencement did not go as planned, and while we did our best to mitigate against the rising temperatures on Friday morning, I know it was not enough,” May wrote in Monday’s letter. “I apologize for the pain, anger and frustration many of you have experienced and expressed.”
May said the university within the next few days will “undertake a comprehensive review of the events with a variety of campus stakeholders.”
The university is offering a $58 refund for caps, gowns and tassels to those who did not get to walk at graduation Friday or Saturday, May said.
The chancellor also said UC Davis is working on a student survey to gather feedback for the timing and details of a makeup event.
May said the university’s “original planning” included an option that would have let some watch a live stream of the ceremony “from the air-conditioned University Credit Union Center” at the campus. According to a UC Davis spokeswoman, that option remained in place for all ceremonies this weekend.
“We were informed at about 11:30 a.m. that conditions had deteriorated significantly and reached a point when it was unsafe to continue,” May’s statement regarding Friday continued.
The ceremony began at 8 a.m. and had been scheduled to end by 10 a.m., according to the schedule on the university website, though May in his letter said it was to conclude “before 11 a.m.”
“At the same time, our water on hand began running low, and we did not have a way to bring more supplies to the stadium quickly enough to serve all of the people in need,” the chancellor said. “Our attention turned to our students on the field, where it was hottest, and where there was no access to shade.”
The lack of shade at UC Davis Health Stadium was reflected in photos and video taken at Friday’s event, and by accounts from those who attended. A few tarp tents could be seen on the football field, but a vast majority of graduating students and spectators appeared to be fully exposed to the sun.
Student Mairéad Ryan said she and other students waited in line in nylon gowns under the hot sun for more than two hours before they were told to walk into the stadium.
“I told one of the organizers that I felt like I was going to faint, but they told me ‘just walk across the stage,’” Ryan told The Sacramento Bee in an email last week.
The chancellor wrote that the university recognized the potential for “very hot” conditions in June and that this was the reason for the early, 8 a.m. start.
A week before the ceremony, university officials “enhanced our infrastructure plan by adding more cooling stations around the stadium, including misters, shade tents, water stations and cooling buses,” the chancellor’s statement continued.
May wrote that campus fire and environmental health and safety officials “mandated that we end the ceremony at once to avoid further crisis.”
“We believe we have reached dangerous conditions,” the PA announcement, which cut short Friday’s ceremony, said in part.
Only a little more than one-third of the students had crossed the stage by then, said UC Davis spokeswoman Kat Kerlin. That means about 1,440 graduating students did not get to walk Friday as planned, Kerlin said.
The university in its initial statement Friday said students who missed out on crossing the stage that morning would be invited for a separate ceremony Sunday, though it was not clear if any took part.
Friday marked the first of three undergraduate commencement ceremonies. In an update, campus officials said Saturday’s ceremony would be altered by having students’ names read while not having them cross the stage.
That plan was changed again last-minute, May said, to allow students to walk. With another heat advisory in effect Saturday, the university moved the ceremony up by 30 minutes — and the day’s planned speakers, rather than appearing, recorded their speeches to “be sent to graduates at a later date,” according to a university statement.
“We changed the program early Saturday morning based on your feedback,” May wrote.
Sunday’s commencement ceremony was similarly moved earlier, with students walking across the stage beginning at 7:30 a.m. Temperatures were significantly cooler Sunday.
Cancellation followed consolidation
Up through 2019, UC Davis held seven undergraduate ceremonies each year — one for each college, all indoors.
May, in a 2019 announcement titled “Commencement Consolidation in 2020,” said the university would combine the seven colleges’ ceremonies down into three, each celebrating about 2,500 graduating students.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, commencement at UC Davis was held virtually in 2020 and in smaller pods in 2021, delaying the consolidation plan to this year.
To squeeze down from seven ceremonies to three would require a different venue, which ended up being the campus football stadium this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The 2019 announcement also mentioned Golden 1 Center as an option.
A university news release said the consolidation would “put more emphasis on our institution as a whole, as one of the leading public universities in the nation,” and May in a prepared statement said it would hopefully draw more “noteworthy speakers.” Saturday’s planned guest speaker was U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, who received her bachelor’s degree from UC Davis in 1972.
The initial news release announcing the new format told students to “rest assured” because the commencements would be held in the morning to “avoid the afternoon heat.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2022 at 2:53 PM.
