RWTH Cancels Anniversary Celebrations for 2020
Addressing the coronavirus crisis takes precedence. Anniversary celebrations will be postponed. The Graduation Ceremony for 2020 has been canceled.
In light of the progressive spread of the coronavirus and the associated effects on society, RWTH Aachen University has decided to cancel the festivities for its 150th anniversary this year. “We are in a special situation where none of us feel like celebrating. There are many more important things than the birthday of our University at the moment,” explains the Rector of RWTH Aachen University, Professor Ulrich Rüdiger.
Already the Science Evening, scheduled to kick off RWTH’s anniversary program in Berlin on March 11, 2020, did not take place. Now University management and the anniversary steering committee decided to cancel all remaining events for the current year. All other centrally organized events at RWTH Aachen University have also been canceled for the coming months, including the University's Graduation Celebration on September 5, 2020.
As soon as there are signs that everyday life is returning to normal, RWTH’s first order of business is to resume regular operations with teaching and research. Per the decree of the State of NRW, the start of the (attendance) lecture period has already been postponed to April 20, 2020. Whether lectures can be held again on campus by then will be decided in the next few weeks based on the further development of the situation.
A later edition of the anniversary events under the motto “Lernen. Forschen. Machen.” is to take place sometime in the future, when RWTH can foresee that the crisis will be under control. Corresponding plans will be announced in due course. It is already certain that the joint anniversary exhibition of the City of Aachen and RWTH, which was to open on May 15, 2020, at the Centre Charlemagne, will be postponed until winter 2021/22.
Source: Press and Communications