Sacramento State’s Associated Students, Inc. provided details for the upcoming CARmencement event and doubled the amount of available ASI scholarships at its meeting Wednesday. 

Cely Smart, chief of staff for President Robert Nelsen’s office, gave a presentation on CARmencement and cited that the ceremony’s format was largely in the interest of the health and safety of students and faculty, as well as the uncertainty of what state regulations will be like when graduation takes place.

“We have no guarantee that our entire campus team will have access to the vaccine before the commencement,” Smart said. “We don’t know what the state or country rules will be, so with the increase in variance we felt like it was too unsafe to have all of our employees back to work this event.”

Smart presented a map showing the tentative CARmencement route through campus during the ceremony, starting on the corner of College Town Drive and State University Drive and moving through a series of checkpoints with volunteers leading to two different exits.

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Throughout the route, Smart said there will be music with a DJ, air dancers, video walls with speeches, staff cheering, portable restrooms and various other amenities.

Graduates will be allowed to select their own date and time for when they want to participate in the CARmencement event. Smart said May 21 and May 22 will be the first days initially available, with more days opening up depending on the number of students who register for the event. Graduates will have until April 1 at noon to register for CARmencement

There will be one information session about CARmencement for graduates and their families on Friday at 2 p.m., and another for faculty and staff on March 10 at 3 p.m.

During the meeting, ASI also transferred more funds from Dollars for Organizations and Clubs to other sources, with $16,400 going to various ASI scholarships, nearly doubling the scholarships available.

ASI President Noah Marty said there will be an announcement through SacSend on Monday to notify students about these scholarships and encourage them to apply. 

“We are doing the groundwork behind this to ensure that we utilize all of these funds and that we get applications for all of these scholarships as much as possible,” Marty said.

An additional $13,600 from the DOC was also allocated to the Provost’s Summer Graduation Initiative Grant, which helps provide grant money for students taking summer courses and who are on track to graduate.