photo by: Mike Yoder/Journal-World

A graduate jumps out of line to greet friends and family while walking down the Campanile Hill, during the 2022 University of Kansas commencement Sunday, May 15.

As Susan Vick entered David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Sunday as one of the first of the University of Kansas Class of 2022 to make the march down the hill from the Campanile, she said she was pleased the commencement was delayed four hours so she could make the traditional walk.

A morning thunderstorm prompted university officials to postpose the commencement to 2:30 p.m., which was a move Vick said she and her classmates welcomed.

“It’s nice,” she said. “I thought the rain might come back.”

Vick graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and an education certificate. She will return to her hometown of Manhattan to work as a faith leader at a church. Earning her degree during the COVID-19 pandemic prepared her and her classmates for the challenges ahead, she said.

“It was difficult for some, but we worked hard, adapted and made it,” she said.

Andrew Kammerer, an accounting major, said the Jayhawk men’s basketball team wining the NCAA tournament this spring was a highlight of his four years at KU. But he said another plus was the university faculty and staff.

photo by: Mike Yoder/Journal-World

University of Kansas NCAA Championship team member Ochai Agbaji, Kansas coach Bill Self and former KU basketball player Wayne Selden Jr. gather for photos before Agbaji and Selden went through graduation ceremonies at the the 2022 University of Kansas commencement Sunday, May 15.

“They really want you to succeed,” he said. “They will work with you to help you be successful.”

KU Chancellor Douglas Girod noted the graduates’ shared experiences with the pandemic and Jayhawk basketball success in his address. The commencement gathering was a nice cap on the pandemic experience, he said.

“It is nice to see you here in person and not on a little screen on Zoom,” he said.

Marching into the stadium with four other KU Law School graduates, Lauren Mangiameli said the pandemic did make her studies more challenging.

“Getting a law degree during a pandemic is certainly difficult,” she said.

The pandemic may have limited the social ties she and fellow law graduates made during their three years, but it made the relationships they developed richer, she said.

“You had the friends you met the first semester,” she said. “I think it made us get much closer to those friends.”

Jorge Peralta, who earned his master’s in accounting and has a job with Deloitte, Ernst & Young in Kansas City, Missouri, said his biggest takeaway from his KU years was the attitude of his fellow students.

“KU students are so professional,” he said. “Everyone works so hard and is so dedicated. I was kind of lazy. They taught me a lot.”

University officials said that about 5,000 graduates were eligible to participate in Sunday’s commencement.

MORE PHOTOS: See more photos from the University of Kansas 2022 commencement ceremony here.