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05.17.24
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May 17, 2024
Commencement is Outside
The forecast is calling for less than a half inch of rain over the course of Saturday morning, so we will continue to hold the ceremony outside. We will monitor the weather all morning and if thunderstorms are detected, we may have to delay the start of the ceremony. We will delay no longer one hour and if the weather does not appear to clear so that we can be safely outside, we will move the ceremony to the Volpe Center to start no later than 11 a.m.
Communication about delays and restarting will be through the Hood Alert system and posted to hood.edu and the College’s social media channels. Please be sure that you are signed up for the Alert.
Things to know for an outside ceremony
- Graduates and guests should dress appropriately for the weather, including sensible footwear for wet grass/soft ground and the wet ramp and stage.
- Clear ponchos will be available behind Alumnae Hall for graduates. For mortarboards that are decorated, you might consider a clear shower cap to cover them.
- Graduates and guests may use small umbrellas, if they are kept close to your head so as not to obstruct views behind you. Guests are encouraged to bring towels to wipes chairs
- To keep programs dry and out of the elements, they will be in a plastic pouch at the end of each row. The student in that seat should take one and pass them down.
- We will be monitoring the ramps, but they still may be slippery. Hold onto the railing as you enter and exit the stage area.
Things to know for an inside ceremony
- Guests will not be admitted without a ticket. Each graduate is allotted three tickets. If you have not picked up your tickets at the Whitaker Campus Center switchboard, make sure you get them. The switchboard is staffed 24 hours. Saturday morning at 7 a.m., the tickets will be available in the Dreiling Seminar Room (lower level Coblentz Hall).
- Graduates do not need a ticket.
- Hodson Auditorium (in Rosenstock Hall) will be open and the ceremony streamed for guests without tickets.
- There will be no processional and graduates can go directly to their seats (you will receive seat and row number later today).
- If your family needs an ASL interpreter, there will be a reserved section in the front row of the bleachers, closest to the podium.
- When it comes time to walk, you will file out of your row and go to the left and out the door into the hallway, processing down the hallway and back into the arena. You will still stop and shake hands with President Chapdelaine and pause for a photo. There will be a small backdrop set up under the scoreboard; that is where you will get your official picture taken.
- At the conclusion of the ceremony, we will announce whether faculty will be on the Quad by their department flags or in their alternate locations (as indicated on page 26 of the commencement program).
Laurie Ward
Vice President for Marketing and Communications