It has been confirmed that NYU Shanghai’s central Quad area will be the location for the 2025 commencement. This is the first time the ceremony will be held on the school grounds as opposed to an outside venue, leading to fears about the feasibility of the ceremony. To assure graduates that the Quad would be a suitable place for the ceremony, the administration set up a “chair testing day” on Wednesday, February 19th. They tested two types of chairs in various positions to simulate what it would look like on graduation day. The ceremony is expected to have an attendance of 2000 people, making it difficult for many students to imagine that many people in such a confined space. The chair testing comes after claims by the administration that the commencement ceremony must be held at the campus because NYU Shanghai is located in Pudong, changing the familiar adage “We are Shanghai” to “We are Pudong.” The following images were taken that day.

New York University Shanghai’s Quad- the location of the 2025 Commencement Ceremony.

White plastic lawn chairs were set up in the quad to quiet students’ anxieties about the logistics of fitting 2000 people in such a small space. This showing only served to confirm the difficulties of such a task.

Each chair was placed about 30cm (a foot) apart, leaving just enough space for individuals to pass through the rows.

The chairs in each row are placed so close together that graduates and guests will sit shoulder to shoulder during the ceremony.

Because of the number of attendees, the school has been forced to make compromises on the placement of chairs.

For guests seated in this area, the view of the stage will be blocked, and they will be required to watch the ceremony on a screen. It is not yet decided which guests will be relegated to this back section during the main ceremony. They will be allowed to move to a better position during the name-calling ceremony, but it has not been announced how that process will work. 

Not a lot is known about the logistics of the ceremony which is raising student concerns about health accommodations, weather, and other issues that may appear on the day of. As the ceremony approaches, the school remains reserved about sharing information with the student body. The school’s insistence on holding the ceremony in the quad seems to further alienate the school from the wider Shanghai community, making the statement “We are Pudong” into less of a reality than the school wants to acknowledge.