Candidates do NOT need a ticket to attend graduation. Tickets for their guests (MAXIMUM of 8) are distributed to students at the UCONN Bookstore only starting April 1st. Ticket Desk hours will be 9:00am-4:30pm in the week before commencement.

All guests aged 4 years (and older) require a guest ticket for entry to the ceremony. Tickets are bar-coded to guard against copies being made for sale or other unauthorized use. If students need extra tickets, they need to fill out the google form that has been provided in multiple emails. All responses must be made through a @uconn.edu email account for verification. Being placed on the waiting list is not a guarantee of extra tickets but we do our best to meet reasonable requests. Extra tickets will not be issued until a week before Commencement. We will notify the requesting student when the tickets are available for pick-up. We will notify you via email when and where to pick up your extra tickets. Graduation Guest tickets cannot be picked up by anyone other than the student.

To participate in the ceremony students MUST purchase UCONN undergraduate regalia (cap & gown). Participation in the Commencement ceremony is OPTIONAL, so no exceptions will be made to this policy. Please access this webpage to get started.

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 to the stream will be posted on the University Commencement webpage (http://www.commencement.uconn.edu). Shortly after the live-stream is completed, a video recording will be available for on-demand watching via the same webpage.

Professional photographers will take photographs of candidates in front of the College of Engineering banner and as they are presented with their diploma covers. All students are asked to fill out the address card that will be provided to them in the Field House. Color proofs will be mailed to the address they provide on the card. 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.

Large bags, cameras with removable lenses, food, beverages (including water bottles) are among the items NOT allowed at Gampel. Strollers are not permitted in any seating areas or on the concourse and stroller storage is very limited; all patrons are encouraged to leave them safely stored inside their vehicles.

Alcohol cannot be brought to the Field House or Gampel and will be confiscated by our security personnel before entry.

Traffic into the Storrs area is extraordinarily heavy on Commencement Day; please allow plenty of extra time. Parking will be available at no cost in the North and South Parking Garages on Commencement Day.

While guests are waiting for the ceremony to begin, we will run a slideshow of the graduating class in Gampel on the Jumbo TVs. Candidates have been notified by email of how, where, and when to submit the slide. The deadline for submission is set by Gampel personnel. To be included, it must be uploaded to the form we emailed to all candidates, by April 6th. Students missing the deadline will NOT have a slide included in the slideshow. To prevent others from submitting a slide the student has not approved, the slides must be submitted by the student, from their UConn email account. However, if you want to make a slide for your busy senior – email it to them and they can submit it to us IF THEY WISH TO DO SO. The slide must meet ALL of these conditions to be included:

• Appropriate for family viewing
• Must be submitted in .ppt format (Microsoft PowerPoint).
• Landscape orientation (a template was emailed to all candidates)
• Must have a caption on the slide with candidates name, major, and hometown. NO OTHER INFORMATION CAN BE INCLUDED!
• When using a text box on the slide, use Calibri, Times New Roman, or Arial font ONLY!  If you want to use other fonts, they must be embedded into a photo - JPG format!
• Do NOT include an animation.
• Does not have to be formal or posed – candids are great.
• By yourself (No group shots but indistinct “crowd” faces of others  in the background are okay!)
• Name your slide submission: Lastname.Firstname.ppt
• And once again – PLEASE submit as a .ppt file using this Google Form:

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. Students should remove “red-eye” if they can, since this looks very bad on the Gampel monitors. They should not s t r e t c h their picture – this produces odd looking results.
For slide ideas, view these examples from prior years.

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. 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.

If you are an individual with a disability or have a guest that will need a special accommodation that was not addressed in this publication, please make your request in writing no later than April 20th by sending an email to: engr-ugcommencement@uconn.edu

Check back here in late March/early April for a table that shows where our candidates will be seated by MAJOR.