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• Commencement Program

Commencement Overview for Advanced-Degree Recipients

Rehearsal/Reception: Saturday, May 24

All candidates for advanced degrees who wish to participate in Commencement activities are required to attend the Graduate School Ceremony rehearsal on Saturday, May 24, at 2:30 p.m. on Lincoln Field.

A reception for all advanced-degree recipients and their family members and guests, co-sponsored by the Graduate School and the Graduate Student Council, will follow the rehearsal on Manning Walk.

Commencement: Sunday, May 25

THE PROCESSION

By no later than 9:00 a.m. all Graduate School degree recipients, dressed in cap and gown (and hood, for Ph.D.s), should report to the assembly area on Waterman Street between Brown and Thayer Streets. Academic regalia must be worn if you wish to march in the procession and participate in the Graduate School Ceremony – THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE. Purchase your academic regalia (cap, gown, and hood if necessary) online or at the Brown Bookstore. No alcoholic beverages are allowed during the Procession or Commencement exercises.

All degree candidates will be ordered by degree type and alphabetically by surname (if your name begins with W, consider walking closer to Thayer Street).

A map of the Procession route is available here.

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL CEREMONY ON LINCOLN FIELD

All of Brown’s advanced-degrees, as well as a number of awards and honors, are conferred at the Graduate School’s Commencement ceremony on Lincoln Field. Please note that your family members and guests do not need tickets for the ceremony, and that all seating is first-come, first-served. This year there will be a photographer making pictures of each advanced-degree candidate during the ceremony, which typically lasts for 2 hours.

After the Procession enters Lincoln Field and platform party is seated, staff will usher advanced-degree candidates into seats according to the order in which they will be called to the platform to receive their degrees. Please remain in alphabetical order, as this is the order in which you will receive your degree.

Awarding of Master's Degrees: A member of the Brown Board of Fellows will award all master's degrees at the conclusion of the student speaker's address. The dean of the Graduate School presents master's degree recipients in the alphabetical order of their surnames and by degree category in the following order: Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Medical Science, Master of Public Affairs, Master of Public Health, Master of Public Policy, and Master of Science. Candidates will mount the platform in the order they are called and receive their degrees from the Fellow. The dean will then award master's degrees in absentia. The Fellow will rise and address the master's recipients, again in Latin, concluding with "Sedete, Magistri omnibus in disciplinis," which is the signal to be seated.

Awarding of Ph.D.s: The Fellow will then confer doctoral degrees. All degree candidates will be presented for their degree by the dean of the Graduate School in the alphabetical order of their surnames. Ph.D. candidates will come forward with their hoods over their left arms. When a candidate's name is called, he or she will mount the platform, stop to collect the degree from the Fellow, acknowledge him or her with a slight bow, then move on to be hooded by the associate deans of the Graduate School. (Men should remove their caps to be hooded; women may leave their caps on.) The dean will then award Ph.D.s in absentia. The Fellow will rise and address the Ph.D. recipients, again in Latin, concluding with "Sedete, Doctores in Philosophia," which is the signal to be seated.

THE UNIVERSITY CEREMONY ON THE MAIN GREEN

At the conclusion of the Graduate School ceremony, all advanced-degree candidates are strongly encouraged to attend the University Ceremony on the Main Green, where President Simmons will symbolically award degrees to students from the Graduate School, the Medical School, and the College. Honorary degrees are also bestowed at the University ceremony.

DEPARTMENTAL CEREMONIES

Departmental Ceremonies at assigned locations as listed in the Commencement program. Most following ceremonies, depending on the number of graduates in the department, will end no later than 4 p.m. Families are strongly encouraged to meet at the location of their department ceremony and not to try and locate each other on the Main Green at the conclusion of the University ceremony.