College Chief Marketing Officer Shannon Oborne said the college’s 74th annual Spring Commencement will not feature the usual long speeches, but will be focused more on honoring students for their accomplishments, sharing memories and bringing them together for a time of online “Smitty fellowship.”

She said there will likely not be a roll call of students’ names, but there will be a shared screen with a list of the seniors.

“I think we’re going to keep it pretty loose, so for the most part it will be everyone talking,” Oborne said. “We’ll use a facilitator to manage that, in case it starts to get too chaotic or too many people are talking over each other.”

College leadership will speak, students who went the extra mile will be awarded, and photos and videos will be shared.

After this formal ceremony, they will break into smaller virtual rooms so students can meet up and talk with their athletics teams or academic groups, whom they may not have seen since the campus closed due to the coronavirus in early March.

“If you think about a kitchen table coming together, that’s really the feel we’re trying to accomplish,” Oborne said.

Until the commencement date, students are being encouraged to decorate their caps and share images on social media tagged #smittypix.

Victoria Tamberrino, a Baking and Service Management, and Culinary Arts major in her senior year, posted a photo of hers on Instagram. Her cap is decorated with a painting based on a photo taken three days after she moved in for her first year at the college in 2016.

“I absolutely couldn’t have asked for a better four years and I’m ready to crank out the last of my schoolwork before graduation in May!” Tamberrino wrote.

She said she is still excited about graduation, though she wishes she could have brought her family up from Virginia to show off the campus to her siblings.

“It is a little disappointing not having the in-person celebration and to take photos with my friends, but the school is doing everything they can to know we’re being acknowledged and recognized as graduates,” Tamberrino wrote in an Instagram message. “I live back in Virginia and I have family all over, so the plan is probably to sit everyone down in our family room and broadcast the ceremony at home while my brother and sister watch from their apartments out of town.”

Heather Tuttle, who coordinates commencement every year, had to change her plans on the fly, which Oborne said made her think outside the usual box.

“You can produce a commencement ceremony year after year, just sort of rinse and repeat. … We’re going to try to replicate that, but it won’t be the same thing,” Oborne said. “This year just simply does not allow that type of thinking, so its really encouraged us to be creative.”

She said because the college is relatively small, it made it easier to keep the event personal, and to inform its planning with one-on-one talks with the students.

Next week the college is shipping “commencement-in-a-box” packages with a “mix” of ceremonial items, PSC souvenirs and thoughtful contributions from local friends and neighbors.

Oborne said students can come back for future in-person graduation ceremonies if social-distancing rules are relaxed by December, or next year’s commencement.

Paul Smith’s College commencement will take place Saturday, May 9 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.