The Spring Graduate Commencement Ceremony will be held Friday, May 8, 2020, at 3 p.m. in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, 1001 E. 17th Street in Bloomington.
You do not need tickets, and there are no reserved seats. You may invite as many guests as you wish.
Candidates completing degree requirements between January 1 and August 31 are invited to participate in Spring Commencement. Candidates for all master’s, doctorate, and specialist degrees; Ph.D.’s; artist diplomas; and performer diplomas should attend the graduate ceremony. Candidates for all associate and bachelor’s degrees should attend the undergraduate ceremony.
Candidates who have completed degree requirements between September 1 and December 31 are invited to participate in the Winter Commencement ceremony. There is no summer ceremony.
1 p.m. Graduates report for lineup in Wilkinson Hall, 1001 E. 17th Street, the building directly southeast of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. During lineup, graduates are directed to their specific school locations, designated by bright red banners, to form the processions.
Faculty must also arrive by this time. Doctoral candidates who are being hooded are responsible for arranging with their faculty mentors to meet them at Wilkinson Hall for robing and lineup. Both students and their faculty mentors must arrive for robing and lineup by this time.
At this time, family and friends of graduates may enter Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, where uniformed ushers will help them find seats. Guests are asked to wait until their parties are complete before being seated. Saving seats is not allowed in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
1:45 p.m. School processions begin.
3 p.m. Main ceremony begins. The main ceremony includes the procession of the platform party, a Commencement speaker, the hooding of doctoral candidates, and the conferral of the degrees.
Note: The Maurer School of Law holds a separate ceremony for graduate degree candidates on Saturday, May 9, 2020. For more information, call 812-855-4809.
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Audiences can enter from the north or south gates. Audience seating is from row one upward. There is additional audience seating in the balcony. There are two emergency exits on the east and west sides of the hall.
The stage is at the north end of the floor, facing south. The procession enters from the south. Graduates sit on the floor of the hall, facing the stage. Students from business, public health, music, medicine, education, arts and sciences, media, global and international studies, and art and design sit on the west side of the floor. Ph.D.s, doctorates, and optometry students sit on the east side of the stage. Overflow student seating for the business school is between section C and D, rows one through 25 on the west side of the stage. Public and environmental affairs and informatics students sit between sections J and K, rows one through 25 on the east side of the hall.
Faculty site between sections B and C, rows one through 25 on the west side of the hall.
Guest seating is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Ushers will be stationed throughout the building to direct all guests to the best possible seats.
Special seating is available for guests in wheelchairs and with limited mobility. Check ADA accommodations to learn more.
Graduate seating is arranged by school and occupies the floor and some of the stands in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Students do not line up alphabetically. They process in through a number of doors, which means that a graduate may wind up anywhere within a school’s section.
