COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The University of Missouri plans to hold in-person graduation ceremonies this spring after canceling the ceremonies last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

May and August graduates will be honored in ceremonies during the weekends of May 7-9 and May 14-16. Students who missed in-person ceremonies last year will be invited back to campus to be honored the weekend of April 23-25, the university announced Thursday.

“We are excited to celebrate our recent alumni and new graduates after a year that has tested all of us,” Mun Choi, University of Missouri system president and MU chancellor, said in a news release.

Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla earlier announced that it would hold in-person graduation ceremonies this year. Missouri Western State University’s Board of Governor’s voted Thursday to return the school in St. Joseph to mostly in-person classes in the fall.

University Provost Doug Davenport said the decision came in response to students’ wishes, as well as the school’s ability to keep cases relatively low, The St. Joseph News-Press reported.

In Joplin, officials have decided to allow the city’s mask mandate to expire on Sunday, Mayor Ryan Stanley said in a statement. The decision comes as confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to drop.

Ryan Talken, director of the Joplin Health Department, reported last week that the seven-day average of cases for the city was at 7.43 per day, compared with 43 per day after the holidays, The Joplin Globe reported.

Missouri health officials on Friday reported 394 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 11 more deaths, bringing the total to 477,472 cases and 7,913 deaths since the pandemic began.