(WSVN) - Florida State University Spring 2025 Commencement ceremonies kicked off this weekend with moments of silence to honor the victims killed in a shooting on campus.
It’s a solemn start to a celebration of resilience and achievement. More than 8,600 degrees will be awarded to graduates as they walk the stage over the weekend.
Each ceremony began with a moment of silence— honoring the lives of Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba — following the mass shooting on campus in late April. Six other victims were hurt.
“We need to acknowledge the loss that our community has suffered. Just over two weeks ago, a tragic act of violence struck our campus. Multiple people were injured and many more were deeply shaken. It was a tough day in the history of Florida State University,” the university’s president, Richard McCullough, said.
From the doctoral hooding morning ceremony to the evening’s undergraduate ceremony, each carried a mix of grief and gratitude and a commitment to moving forward.
“The most remarkable thing that happened, happened after that. The resilience of the students who were shot was unbelievable. Their attitudes and willingness to pick themselves up and go on, it was inspiring to me,” McCullough said.
McCullough said support for the university has poured in from across the world, but it was the campus itself that helped him heal.
“The attitudes of the students that we met on campus, the ones I got emails from, helped me to heal and helped each other and helped everybody else begin to heal,” McCullough said.
The class described not just by their academic success, but by their strength in the face of tragedy.
“I think we witnessed one of the things that makes FSU special. It’s compassion, it’s courage, the family atmosphere,” McCullough said. “I’ve been in a lot of universities, it’s not like [how] it is here, at other universities. It is, indeed, something that is special.”
This is the largest graduating class in FSU’s history.
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