Candidates for Degrees - Winter Information

General parking will be in any legal space on campus. Parking in the West and Thomas parking garages will be on level two and above.
For those with disabilities who have appropriate hangtags, parking will be available in the West and Thomas parking garages.
Graduates should arrive at the Martinez Center by 9:15 a.m.
Do not bring alcohol to the ceremony. It will be confiscated.
Bring with you the name card that you received in the mail from the Registrar’s Office.
Honor cords and additional name cards will be available on Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Registrar’s Office table located in the Martinez Center lobby.
All candidates should tie their tassels to the button on the top of their hat. Undergraduate candidates’ tassels should be on their right side. Graduate candidates’ tassels should be on their left side.
Undergraduate candidates will gather in the west hallway near the training room.
Graduate candidates will gather in the south hallway near the main Athletic Office. Master's in business candidates should wear their hoods. Nursing master candidates should place their hoods on their left arm. Two faculty members will assist in placing the hoods over the commencement gowns prior to the graduates’ ascending the stairs.
If your family/friends will be arriving at 9:40 a.m. or later, please have them use the right hand doors to enter the seating area; Diplomats will assist them. (The procession will be using the left hand doors.)
We are asking that people not sit in the first row of each section to provide for those who are in wheelchairs or unable to climb stairs.
Graduates must be ready to march at 9:45 a.m. – the procession begins at that time. First the faculty will leave the R.K. Bailey Arts Studio and move to the Martinez Lobby. The platform party will follow the faculty. Next will be the undergraduate candidates and then the graduate candidates.
The Marshals will direct you in all phases of the ceremony. Please give them your attention and cooperation.
After the faculty members create the “honor rows,” the marshal will guide the graduates through those honor rows to their seating sections.
The commencement ceremony will begin as close to 10 a.m. as we can move along the procession.
The program usually takes about an hour and a half, depending on the number of candidates and speakers.
At the bottom of the steps, a Diplomat will assist undergrad candidates to move their tassels from the right side to the left side before the candidates go up the steps.
Hooding for nursing and education graduate students will be done at the bottom of the stairs. Business master’s candidates will have already been hooded and they should wear their hoods during the ceremony.
Shake hands with President Vaughn with your right hand and take your diploma case with your left hand.
A professional photographer will take your picture as you receive your diploma and after you are offstage. Please ask friends and family not to block the view of others.
No receptions are planned for graduates after the ceremony. A reception for all graduates will be on Friday in the Vaughn Center, ninth floor, from 5-7 p.m.
Please go to UT’s commencement Web page and read the information so you will be fully prepared for this special occasion.

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