Prior to the Ceremony
- Make sure you have your cap, gown, hood, tassel, and graduate stage pass.
- Leave all personal belongings with your family or friends.
Arrive on Campus/Park Center
- Graduates will navigate to Corey Gymnasium inside of Park Center at 6 p.m. with their graduate stage pass. Guests should go directly to Alumni Arena to find their seating.
- Inside of Corey Gymnasium, graduates will check in with staff and receive their reader card. Graduates will provide this card to the reader as they approach the top of the stage ramp. If not done correctly on the reader card, please provide a phonetic pronunciation to assist the reader announcing the graduate's name.
- Graduates must remain in the gymnasium after entering, where they will then be lined up by their respective schools. Signage will be posted for the Certificate of Advanced Studies, School of Education, School of Arts and Sciences and School of Professional Studies. All signs will have a breakdown of the programs.
- Hooding Instructions will be provided.
Ceremony Processional (Entering the Ceremony)
- At approximately 6:50 p.m., student line marshals will begin to lead the students to Alumni Arena. The processional into Alumni Arena begins promptly at 7 p.m. Students will follow the faculty into Alumni Arena.
- The marshals will turn to face the graduates and guide them into the rows of seating. Please follow all instructions given by the marshals.
- If able, graduates should not sit until directed by the administrator on stage. The platform party is the last group to enter Alumni Arena.
Ceremony
- All students will be conferred their degree by school.
- Following the conferral, students will be escorted to the stage where their name will be read, along with their special person.
- Two faculty members will hood each graduate when they first enter the stage.
- Several photographs of each student will be taken on the stage, in addition to a final photograph taken of the student with their diploma cover on the "off ramp." Photography of all students is provided by GradImages.
- Following the walk across the stage graduates will then be directed back to their seat by student line marshals.
Recessional (Exiting the Ceremony)
- At the conclusion of the ceremony, the platform party and faculty will first exit Alumni Arena. Student line marshals will then escort the graduates out, beginning with the front of the Arena to the back of the Arena.
- Graduates can plan to meet their guests after the recessional inside of Corey Gymnasium, or a mutually agreed upon location. Please do not break the line and head into the audience.
Graduate Commencement Reception
A Graduate Commencement Reception will be held in Park Center, Corey Gymnasium immediately following the ceremony. All graduates, guests, faculty and staff are invited to attend this event.