We will be celebrating the College of Engineering undergraduate Class of 2024 with an in-person Commencement ceremony. It will be held in Gampel Pavilion on Saturday, May 4th, 2024 from 9am to 11am. Guest admission to the ceremony is by ticket only. Candidates for graduation do not need a ticket for admission to the ceremony. Eight (8) guest tickets are being allotted per candidate.

In-person at Gampel Pavilion on the UConn Storrs Campus.

Saturday, May 4th, 2024. Gampel will open FOR GUESTS at 8AM.

Candidates for Graduation (graduating seniors and prior December grads) report to the FIELD HOUSE by 7:30am - see the other FAQ on this page for those details.

The ceremony will run from 9AM-11AM. Students process into Gampel from the Field House at about 8:40am. 

STUDENTS (AKA: Candidates for Graduation) should be at FIELD HOUSE on SATURDAY, May 4^th by 7:30am to form lines, by major, for the PROCESSION into GAMPEL.

When you arrive, you will be provided with a card to fill out. This card will be used to call your name as you receive your diploma cover and to match your name with your photos. Please fill it out neatly and completely.

Marshals will assist you in lining up and will lead the procession into Gampel. You will be seated in sections we have reserved for students by major.

our guests will be seated on the other side of the auditorium in designated “open-seating” areas. Marshalls will seat students in sections.

Starting beginning of April, eight (8) guest tickets per candidates are available for pick-up at the bookstore. The ticket counter is on the second floor. If your guests live out of town we STRONGLY recommend you get the tickets to them long before Commencement Day.

Lost tickets will NOT be replaced.

There is no "Will Call" for commencement tickets - students are solely responsible for getting these to their guests.

Additionally, we encourage candidates to only take the number of tickets they will actually use.

Children four (4) and older will require a ticket to attend the ceremony.

If you have additional family members and friends who are interested in watching but you do not have enough guest tickets, please let them know about the live streaming of our ceremonies.

If you are a December 2023 graduate who is no longer local or a regional campus student, you may complete the 2024 Commencement Guest Tickets Request Form. (Form will be available mid-March).

The Ticket Desk will be open on Saturday, May 4th.

To be added to the EXTRA ticket wait list, you must enter a reasonable request (a few extra tickets) in our form with your UCONN HuskyMail account. This is required to assure that guests you did not invite do not get tickets. Requests for extra tickets made from non-UConn email accounts will be deleted. Email us at: engr-ugcommencement@uconn.edu to request access to the “extra tickets waitlist” form.

Being placed on our waitlist is not a guarantee of being issued extra tickets, although we do our best to accommodate these requests.

EXTRA tickets are not issued until most eligible students have picked up their tickets at the bookstore. Once most students have done this, the bookstore will release the extras to us for distribution to our waitlist. This generally happens about 10 days before Commencement. We will notify you when extra tickets become available and give you a location and timeframe for pick-up. Candidates for graduation must pick up their extra tickets in person. You will need to bring your UConn ID.

EXTRA College of Engineering undergrad ceremony tickets need to be requested on the form only. If you graduated this past December, and you cannot come to campus to pick up your extra tickets, email us to request an alternate method for getting them.

Students are not required to participate in Commencement – it is optional.  So, to participate in the commencement ceremony, all 2023 graduates, and the 2024 candidates for graduation (aka: graduating seniors) must follow the guidelines outlined below. No exceptions will be made.

Each candidate must purchase a UConn blue gown, mortar board (cap), and the College of Engineering tassel (orange). These are sold at the Bookstore. 

Candidates must wear shoes and proper attire under their graduation gown.

Gowns are to remain completely zipped during the entire ceremony from the processional through the recessional. 

Wearing a mortarboard is REQUIRED and should be worn level.  You can decorate the top of your mortar board if desired. Tassels should hang from the right side when candidates enter Gampel, to be moved to the left during the ceremony when told to do so.

As it gets closer to May, there WILL be long lines at the Bookstore to purchase you cap/gown/tassel packet – so get yours as soon as you can!

OTHER ATTIRE GUIDELINES:

We ask that candidates only wear stoles/cords/pins, etc. that are provided to them due to scholastic honors or from a UConn registered student organization (RSO).
The wearing or carrying of flags, banners, signs, posters, balloons, or flower bouquets is NOT allowed. 
Cultural and/or religious attire and/or headwear are welcomed but must be worn UNDER your cap and gown. 

To participate in the ceremony students MUST purchase regalia (cap & gown), here is how to do that:

The online ordering portal for regalia is now open. You have several options:

1. Purchase Regalia in the UConn Bookstore: Regalia items will be available for in-store purchase at the Avery Point, Hartford, Stamford, and Storrs Bookstore locations starting beginning of April.
2. Order Regalia Online and Ship to Bookstore: Visit the portal, select the Ship to Store option, and complete your order. Ship to Store orders will have no shipping fees! The deadline is February 18th. Orders will be available to pick-up at the UConn Bookstore location after the starting date for pick-up orders,
3. Order Regalia Online and Ship to Home: Visit the portal, select the Ship to Home option, and complete your order. There is a $15.95 domestic/$60.00 international shipping and handling charge to have your regalia shipped home. Deadline to place your online Ship to Home order is typically in late March. Ship to Home orders will be filled, packaged, and shipped out by our vendor as they are received.

The Storrs bookstore will be open Monday -Thursday 8am-8pm, Friday 8am-6pm, and 8am-6pm on the weekend of commencement.

ORDERING Portal: https://uconngrad.shopoakhalli.com/purchasewizard/Welcome

Students can only wear stoles/cords/pins etc. that were provided to them due to scholastic honors or from a UConn registered student organization (RSO).

The wearing or carrying of flags/banners/signs is NOT allowed.

Cultural and/or religious attire and/or headwear are welcomed but must be worn UNDER your cap and gown. Gowns are to remain completely zipped during the entire ceremony from the processional through the recessional.

The Commencement ceremony is a joyful but optional event that we hope you and your friends/family will attend and enjoy. However, as it is optional, NO exceptions will be made to our guidelines. 

IT IS NOT AUTOMATIC. By the fourth week of their final semester at UConn, all students must apply to graduate via Student Admin. This is the trigger that informs the Office of the Registrar to conduct a “degree audit” of a student’s transcript. Once a student completes their final semester, if Degree Audit determines all requirements have been met, a diploma is granted. Applying by the fourth week also ensures you will be included in Commencement communications. If a student fails to apply for graduation, a degree audit will not be conducted, their name will not appear in the commencement book, they will not be listed as eligible to purchase a cap/gown/tassel, and they will not be granted in-person ceremony tickets for their guests.

All May 2024, August 2024, and December 2023 graduates.

December graduates are only eligible to participate in the next calendar year’s ceremony. For example: a student finishing their degree requirements in December 2024, is only eligible to “walk” in the May 2025 commencement ceremony. This long-standing University rule applies to all schools and colleges and is firm. No exceptions will be made.

You can attend either the College of Engineering commencement, the School of Business commencement, both ceremonies, or none.

UConn diploma covers will be distributed at the 2024 Commencement ceremony.

Degrees are posted 1 to 6 weeks after your actual conferral date. Notification is sent via email once your record has been updated.

Diplomas are mailed to the address you have on-file in StudentAdmin approximately 8 to 10 weeks after your graduation date.

UConn will be hosting live-streams of all Commencement ceremonies. For those unable to obtain a guest ticket or make the trip to Storrs, the College of Engineering ceremony will be live-streamed on the internet. The link will be provided closer to the Commencement date.

Shortly after the live-stream is completed, a video recording will be available for on-demand watching via the same webpage.

Traffic into the Storrs area is extraordinarily heavy on Commencement Day; please allow plenty of extra time. It is recommended to enter campus on the Route 44.

Parking will be available at no cost in the North and South Parking Garages on Commencement Day. Handicap parking will be available in both garages on a first-come, first-served basis.

Additionally, there is no charge at select surface parking lots.

The closest available area for handicapped parking is on the ground level of the South Parking Garage, which is adjacent to Gampel. Handicapped parking spaces are only available for vehicles displaying a permit issued by a state Motor Vehicles Department. These spaces are limited and are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. We suggest that you consider dropping off guests needing special assistance with one other family member in front of Gampel. Gampel personnel will be happy to assist you and your guests.

There is an area reserved for wheelchair users on the Concourse Level and this seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. To allow sufficient space for all guests who use wheelchairs, we ask that only one family member or friend plan on sitting in the area set aside for people needing this accommodation. You do NOT need to reserve this accommodation, we are happy to assist all people needing this assistance.

The university does not have wheelchairs to loan available on campus. If an individual is in need of a wheelchair, they must provide one themselves. However, Gampel is wheelchair/handicapped accessible.

For hearing impaired guests, the University provides a sign language interpreter for all ceremonies. Please let staff members know if you need this service when you arrive at Gampel.

Additionally, free of charge and upon request, there will be assistive listening systems. Please visit the A/V platform (directly above Section C-109) and ask a member of the event staff (wearing yellow jackets) to help retrieve a system.

If you are an individual with a disability or have a guest that will need a special accommodations that was not addressed in this publication, please make your request in writing no later than April 29th by sending an email to: engr-ugcommencement@uconn.edu

Professional photographers from Flash Photography will take THREE photographs of candidates during the ceremony. All students are asked to fill out the address card that will be provided to them in the Field House. Proofs will be mailed to the address they provide on the card.

During the ceremony, students will walk onto the floor (basketball court) to be congratulated, have their "celebration" photo taken, be photographed a second time receiving their diploma cover from the Dean or Associate Dean, and have their photograph taken a third and final time holding their diploma cover. Then they will return to their seat for the remainder of the ceremony.

Tripods are NOT allowed in Gampel Pavilion. Members of the audience using hand-held cameras may take pictures during the ceremony from the concourse level of Gampel Pavilion. To accommodate everyone, individuals are requested to use these areas for only a short time and then return to their seats.

Alcohol is not permitted at the Field House or Gampel and will be confiscated by our security personnel before entry.

While guests are waiting for the ceremony to begin, we run a slideshow of the graduating class in Gampel on the jumbo TV monitors. (We run the slideshow at Senior Design Demo Day as well.)

The deadline for submission is typically early April. Our students will be emailed the 2024 Engineering Grad Slide Submission form from engr-ugcommencement@uconn.edu. Students missing the deadline will NOT have a slide included in the slideshow.

To prevent others from submitting a slide for you, you must submit from your UConn email account. Short on time? Have a parent/sibling/friend make a slide for you and email it to you so YOU can submit it form your UConn email address. The slide must meet ALL of these conditions to be included:

• ppt format (Microsoft PowerPoint) ONLY
• slide must be exactly 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high (landscape orientation)
• Picture must be of you ONLY – no group shots (indistinguishable “crowd” faces in the background is fine).
• A professional head-shot can be used but it is not expected. The picture can be a candid – you doing a hobby, traveling, working, sky diving, climbing a mountain, etc.
• A caption is required ON the slide with: first and last name, major, and hometown ONLY (any font and size that fits). No hashtags, political slogans, etc. or other readable items are allowed.
• Appropriate for family viewing.

Most students use a portrait oriented picture and put a banner with the information we require to “fill in” the slide and make it LANDSCAPE orientation. Remove “red-eye” if you can, since this looks very bad on the Gampel jumbo TVs. Do NOT s t r e t c h your photo – this produces odd-looking results.

For slide ideas, view the 2021 slideshow here.