Undergraduate Commencement

Congratulations Graduates! The School of Fine Arts 2025 Undergraduate Commencement ceremony will be held at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts at UConn Storrs. Here is what to expect during the Commencement Ceremony:

• Date: Saturday, May 10, 2025
• Time: 

• • 5:00 p.m. — Doors open for guests at Jorgensen. Please note that metal detectors will be in use at the entrance to the building.
  • 5:00 – 5:40 p.m. – Check-in for graduating students.

• • • • Fill out your photography card
      • Receive your reader card
      • Leave personal items with family as there is nowhere to store them
      • We encourage you to use the restroom prior to arrival, as bathrooms are limited

• • 5:40 p.m. – Procession line-up begins – please arrive before this time so you have time to check in!
  • 5:50 p.m. — Class of 2025 procession begins
  • 6:00 p.m. — Ceremony begins at Jorgensen (Note: the ceremony will also be live-streamed). We expect the ceremony to last approximately 1.5 hours.

• Apply to graduate and submit your final plan of student with Degree Audit- follow the Registrar's Steps to a Successful Graduation.
• University Commencement Information
  • Purchase regalia
  • Pick up your Commencement tickets
• Complete form to share a preferred name or phonetic spelling of your name
• Check out: UConn Senior Resources
• Complete the "Huskies Moving on Survey."

• Please note there will not be a rehearsal, nor is there a formal reception.
• Traffic on campus during Commencement Weekend is significantly greater than usual. Please plan ahead to arrive with plenty of time to park and make your way to the Jorgensen. Give yourself more time than you think you need.
• Guest Parking and Directions:
  • North Garage is the closest parking garage to the Jorgensen Center located at the intersection of North Eagleville and Hillside Roads. Various other lots and UConn’s shuttle bus service will also be available, as well.
    • For GPS: North Parking Garage: 103 North Eagleville Road, Storrs, CT 06269
  • Parking for people with disabilities (as verified by an official state department of motor vehicles decal) will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you otherwise need to drop off guests or graduates, there is a cut-out in front of the Jorgensen that may be used for this purpose.

• • Directions and parking information are also available on the University's Commencement website.

• • Guests will enter through the main entrance on Hillside Road.

• Information about obtaining tickets and regalia is available on the University's Commencement website.

• Regarding regalia (cap & gown): All students are required to wear the UConn blue undergraduate cap (mortar board) and gown to Commencement if they wish to participate. No exceptions will be made to this rule. You are not required to participate in Commencement – it is optional.  You may purchase your cap and gown through the UConn Bookstore. They are available for purchase until the day of Commencement. You may use regalia borrowed or handed down from a recent (last two years) UConn graduate, but it must match the current color in use; older regalia will likely not be the correct color.
  • You must wear shoes and proper attire under your graduation gown.
  • Mortarboards should be worn straight. Tassels should hang from the right side, to be moved to the left during the ceremony when asked to do so.
  • We love your creativity, so please feel free to personalize mortarboards within the realms of good taste.
• Regarding tickets: Candidates for Graduation do NOT need a ticket.  All guests age 4 and older must have a guest ticket for entry to the Jorgensen. Each candidate can pick up up to ten guest tickets at the UConn Bookstore. Tickets are bar-coded to guard against copies being made for sale or other unauthorized use. If you need extra tickets, please email Arielle Hill-Moses (arielle.hill-moses@uconn.edu) with your request as soon as possible; extra tickets are available on a first come, first serve basis, and we do our best to meet reasonable requests. Extra tickets will not be issued until a few days before Commencement. You will be notified when the tickets are available for pick-up.
• If you are an individual with a disability and require an accommodation in order to participate in Commencement, please contact Arielle Hill-Moses (arielle.hill-moses@uconn.edu), to discuss your needs.  Please allow adequate time to ensure that appropriate accommodations may be arranged.

1. Marshals (one faculty member from each department) will assist you in lining up, by department, and will lead the student procession into the Jorgensen Auditorium. You will be seated in sections we have reserved for students, by department. Your guests will be seated in designated “open-seating” areas.
2. The procession will be two lines filing down the aisles of the auditorium concurrently, led by your department marshals. When it is your department’s turn to be presented as candidates for the diploma, your department Marshal will direct you to walk back up to the aisle to circle around the back of the student seating session before approaching the stage to be congratulated. Bring your reader card with you.
3. Once onstage, you will see a faculty member who is reading names standing at the podium closest to you. You will hand them your reader card and they will read your name and the degree you are receiving as you cross the stage. You will receive your diploma cover from your department head, and your photograph will be taken by the Flash Photography commencement photography company as you walk. Members of the faculty from your department will be lined up to greet you, and then you will walk down a set of stairs off the stage. There will be staff at the base of the stairs to direct you.
4. You will be directed to an area on the other side of the stage to pose for a formal portrait with your diploma cover. Once you have had your photo taken, return to your seat.
5. All candidates are expected to stay for the remainder of the ceremony. There is a student recessional out of the Jorgensen at the end of the ceremony. Your actual diploma will be mailed to your permanent home address a few months after Commencement.

A series of informative emails will go out to our most up-to-date list of graduating students on an irregular but frequent basis starting in January. Once those start going out, if you miss any of those emails, you will be able to catch up here.

Graduate Commencement

Master’s and Sixth-Year Candidates

The 2025 Graduate Commencement ceremony for master’s and sixth-year diploma candidates will be held at Gampel Pavilion at UConn Storrs.

• Date: Monday, May 12, 2025
• Time: 
  • 7 - 7:45 a.m. — Student processional forms in the Fieldhouse.
    • All Masters candidates participating in the student processional will need to gather in the Fieldhouse by 7:45am.
    • Students will form two lines in the Fieldhouse and each will make their way into Gampel Pavilion. Students will be separated and seated by degree program.
    • Any Masters candidates who utilize wheelchairs, crutches, or walkers should enter Gampel using the Wolff-Zackin Natatorium lobby (near the Husky dog sculpture). A staff person will be located there and will show you to the elevator.
  • 8 a.m. — Doors open at Gampel Pavilion
  • 8:15 a.m. — Student Processional Begins
  • 9 a.m. — Ceremony begins at Gampel (Note: the ceremony will also be live-streamed.)

Doctoral Candidates

The 2025 Graduate Commencement ceremony for doctoral candidates will be held at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts at UConn Storrs.

• Date: Monday, May 12, 2025
• Time: 
  • 4 - 4:30 p.m. — Student processional forms at Jorgensen.
    • All Doctoral candidates will gather in the lobby of the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theater (the "little theater") for procession into Jorgensen Auditorium.
      • Candidates must enter the lobby of the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theater via the doors on the back of Jorgensen along Auditorium Road along with their Faculty Advisor. Candidates (and their advisors) will be seated by degree program.
      • All Doctoral candidates participating in the candidate processional will need to enter the lobby of the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theater by 4:30pm.
      • Any Doctoral candidates who utilize wheelchairs, crutches, or walkers should enter Jorgensen using the main entrance off of Hillside Road. A staff person will be located there and will show you to the elevator.
  • 5 p.m. — Doors open at Jorgensen
  • 5:15 p.m. — Student Processional Begins
  • 6 p.m. — Ceremony Begins  (Note: the ceremony will also be live-streamed.)

School of Fine Arts Graduate Celebration and Hooding

In addition to the official commencement ceremonies hosted by the university for Master’s, Sixth-Year, and Doctoral Candidates, the School of Fine Arts will host a celebratory event to recognize our graduate students. Candidates are hooded by faculty and welcomed into the community of scholars.

This event will take place on Saturday, May 10, at 11:30am in the von der Mehden Recital Hall on the Storrs Campus. If you are approved to graduate by your department head/department graduate student coordinator, please confirm your attendance.

Here is what to expect:

• Date: Saturday, May 10, 2025
• Time: 
  • 10:30 a.m. — Doors to the von der Mehden open for guests.
    • You may escort your guests and help them get settled
  • 10:30 – 11:10 a.m. - Candidates and faculty should report to the long corridor alongside the production facility, the entrance to which is directly across from the von der Mehden entrance.
  • 11:10 a.m. Procession line-up begins – please arrive before this time!
    • Dean’s Office staff will be on-site to help you get in order
  • 11:20 a.m. – Procession departs production facility for von der Mehden
  • 11:30 a.m. – Event begins in von der Mehden. We expect the ceremony to last approximately 45 minutes.
  • 12:15 p.m. – Reception in Zachs Family Fine Arts Administration Building Atrium (the area below the glass cylindrical structure in the Fine Arts Complex). Coffee and cookies will be provided.

• There is a rehearsal for this event, date and time TBD but in the week leading up to May 10, in the von der Mehden Recital Hall.
  • Rehearsal is not mandatory, but is helpful, especially if you have not attended one of these before. We will go over the run of show, help you to know where you will be at what point of the celebration, and we will have time to practice the act of hooding itself (to which end, if you are graduating and have received your regalia, it would be helpful if you could bring your hood to the rehearsal!).
  • If you are unable to attend the rehearsal, but have questions about the ceremony and would like to go over it with me individually, please reach out to Arielle Hill-Moses (arielle.hill-moses@uconn.edu), and we will do our best to accommodate.
• We will also be hosting a reception after the event on May 10. It will immediately follow the event (which we anticipate will end approximately around 12:15pm), and take place in the atrium of the Zachs Family Fine Arts Administration Building (the area below the glass cylindrical structure in the Fine Arts Complex). Coffee and cookies will be provided.
• Please note that traffic on campus during Commencement Weekend is significantly greater than usual. Please plan ahead to arrive with plenty of time to park and make your way to the von der Mehden. Give yourself more time than you think you need.
  • That said, the main ceremonies on this date take place in Gampel and the Jorgensen, so parking on our side of campus may be somewhat easier.
• Guest Parking and Directions:

• • The hooding will take place in the von der Mehden recital hall. Guests and graduates may park in the Area 1 lot next to the recital hall or the Area 2 lot across the street from the Area 1 lot or the smaller Area 2 lot across the street adjacent to E.O. Smith (see areas circled in green):
    

• Regarding regalia (cap & gown): All students are required to wear official UConn regalia (cap/tam, gown, and hood) to this event if they wish to participate. No exceptions will be made to this rule. You are not required to participate in Commencement – it is optional. Y ou may purchase your cap and gown through the UConn Bookstore. They are available for purchase until the day of Commencement. You may use regalia borrowed or handed down from a recent (last two years) UConn graduate, but it must match the current color in use; older regalia will likely not be the correct color.
  • You must wear shoes and proper attire under your graduation gown.
  • Mortarboards should be worn straight.
  • We love your creativity, so please feel free to personalize mortarboards within the realms of good taste.
• Regarding tickets: This event is not ticketed! Seating is open, first come, first serve.

If you are an individual with a disability and require an accommodation in order to participate in Commencement, please contact Arielle Hill-Moses (arielle.hill-moses@uconn.edu), to discuss your needs.  Please allow adequate time to ensure that appropriate accommodations may be arranged.

• Information about obtaining tickets and regalia is available on the University's Commencement website.
• Aside from a small number of reserved seats, seating is open - first come, first serve. There is not a bad seat in the house!
• Directions and parking information is also available on the University's Commencement website.
• Photography:
  • Flash Photography is the official photographer for the University’s Commencement ceremonies. Proofs will be sent to the email address provided on the Name Reader cards distributed at the ceremonies shortly after graduation. Pictures can be ordered online or by phone. Flash Photography can be contacted via email or telephone.
  • No tripods will be allowed in the Jorgensen.  Members of the audience using handheld cameras may take pictures during the ceremonies from areas reserved for that purpose.  In order to accommodate everyone, individuals are requested to move to those areas for only a short interval and then return to their seats.  Guests will not be permitted on the stage or the pathways of the candidates.
• The Commencement ceremonies will be livestreamed via Total Webcasting for those who cannot attend in person. (The 2024 ceremonies will be added to the top of the page as we get closer to the events.)
• Metal detectors will be in use at all ceremonies held in the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. You will be asked to remove cameras, cellphones, headwear, keys, and other large metal objects. You will not need to remove belts, coins, wallets, watches/jewelry.
• Balloons are not permitted at the Commencement ceremony venues.

The University's Commencement Office has established a website to provide easy access to information regarding the Commencement ceremony.  Many specific questions are addressed under Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).  Driving directions and nearby lodging information are also available on the website.