I saw this last week and thought it awful strange and more liberal stupidity. When I graduated college and when my oldest graduated they didn’t have an posthumous degrees, but just this year my youngest graduated college and one of the seniors during the year had died and he was awarded a posthumous degree in the school he was in and his father accepted the award. They did it at the end of the ceremony so this is apparently not unique.
I believe this is pretty common to do, when a classman has passed. The difference is that they have matriculated.
It’s just a PR stunt. An unintended consequence is that it is an insult to everyone who *earned* their degree.