Bentley University To Hold Commencement 2021 At Fenway Park

WALTHAM, MA — Bentley University is planning an in-person commencement ceremony for the Class of 2021 at Fenway Park this spring.

On May 1, Bentley will host both a ceremony for the Class of 2021, and a second ceremony at Fenway to honor its Class of 2020 graduates, whose commencement was held virtually last year because of the pandemic.

“We are thrilled to host Commencement and honor our graduates safely in such an iconic venue,” said Interim President and Board Chair Paul Condrin in a statement. “Both the Class of 2020 and Class of 2021 have overcome incredible challenges as they completed their college careers. This special day will give them the recognition they so deeply deserve.”

The university said it planned to follow all state guidelines for planning the event, which still needed to be approved by the City of Boston and Fenway Park.

The announcement comes just two weeks after the university went on Coronavirus lockdown because of a spike in cases at the school, putting its positivity rate at 4.7 times the average positivity among all colleges and universities in Massachusetts.

Since the beginning of the year the school has administered 41,261 COVID-19 tests. Of those, 243 people tested positive for a positivity rate of 0.60 percent. On March 22, the positivity rate was at 0.54 percent.

As of March 23, Bentley's seven-day positivity rate average was 0.82 percent compared with a 0.23 percent average across higher education institutes and the 1.16 percent in Waltham.