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QuickTake:
On a hot but festive morning in Eugene, the University of Oregon class of 2026 filed into Autzen Stadium to celebrate their accomplishments.
On a hot, hot day in Eugene, the University of Oregon class of 2026 celebrated graduation, decked out in green-and-yellow regalia.
Many walked along the Autzen footbridge to get to the stadium ceremony, past evidence of celebrations past (one trash can was overflowing with empty cans and bottles), before filing into the stadium itself.
It was hot on the field. Graduates sweated through the ceremony, with water bottles in hand. “It’s 73 in Eugene, but 100 here on the turf,” said Jason Younker, adviser to the president on sovereignty and government-to-government relations and Chief of the Coquille Indian Tribe.
Later in the day, all remaining program-specific graduation ceremonies were rescheduled and relocated, due to the heat.
Steve Holwerda, board chair of UO’s board of trustees, noted that the ceremony was commemorating 4,413 bachelor’s degrees, 815 master’s degrees, 198 doctoral degrees and 164 law degrees.
Those degrees, he added, were going to students from all 50 states and from 50 countries around the world; the oldest graduate was 67 years old, and the youngest was 19 years old.
Despite the heat, graduates had plenty to celebrate, after finishing a college education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s pretty rough from the past couple years, especially with COVID,” said Ally Casasola, a graduate originally from Lihue, Hawaii, celebrating her bachelor’s in psychology and biological anthropology. After graduation, Casasola will start a job at Jasper Mountain, a nonprofit youth mental health center in Jasper, south of Springfield. “But it’s definitely been rewarding.”
“Honestly, I never thought I’d graduate,” said Ryan Hughes, 25. Hughes graduated with his bachelor’s in environmental science, after taking years off during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Not going to lie, after COVID, I kind of just like thought school wasn’t really for me, just kind of work the rest of my life,” he said. Then, I kind of wanted to start learning stuff again.”
The day after graduation, he’s going to be on a plane back home to Massachusetts to start an internship at the North and South Rivers Watershed Association.
“Ducks don’t travel alone, as you heard,” said actress Marlee Matlin while delivering the keynote commencement speech.
“They move together, they support each other, they take turns leading. That’s important too, because life can be so much better when you build a life with good people around you and stay connected to your community. Help people when you can, let people help you when you need it.”
But for the main ceremony earlier in the morning, the heat didn’t deter the crowd hooting and hollering to celebrate their graduation.
Nor did it stop graduates from jumping, singing and dancing to the de facto anthem for the UO: The Isley Brothers’ “Shout.”
“Today, I would like to talk about Ducks,” said UO president Karl Scholz in his remarks. “Calm on the surface, paddling like mad underneath.
“What we don’t always see is the work that makes the glide possible. The late nights, the moments of doubt, the exams you left convinced you had failed. That was you paddling. But today, you glide. Still moving, still powering forward, just now with confidence, and perhaps a little more lift.”
