Video: Countdown to Commencement and Reunion Weekend

Commencement is an important milestone for all Brown students — the culmination of their educational journey as undergraduates, graduate or medical students. This year, the weeekend also welcomes back alumni from Brown classes ending in 1 and 6, along with recent graduates, to College Hill for connection, community and celebration.

A week of activity, from preparations to celebrations

Activities, preparations and celebrations abounded as campus geared up for Brown’s 258th Commencement and Reunion Weekend.

One of the first signs of the celebration to come? The massive “2026” sign hung carefully above the entrance to Sayles Hall, followed by traditional banners unfurled near Faunce Arch.

From celebrations hosted by departments, centers and schools, to nearly 20 festive events that comprised Senior Week 2026 organized by the student-run Class Coordinating Board, graduating students enjoyed time with each other in advance of the big weekend. This slideshow captures some of those moments. 

Brown-RISD dual degree graduate prepares for science-inspired art exhibition

During senior year, soon-to-graduate Brown-RISD dual degree student Ian Haut has been preparing an exhibition for the Lincoln Field Building, home to Brown’s planetary and environmental scientists.

“FOLIATION” features three tufted rug tapestries, all inspired by research he conducted in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences (DEEPS). To coincide with Commencement Weekend, the exhibit opens Friday, May 22, at 3 p.m.

Haut, who is graduating with a Brown degree in Earth, climate and biology, and a RISD degree in illustration, says the work is a perfect melding of his scholarly interests.

“I typically work in either fiber arts or digital 3D, and my work almost always revolves around nature, the Earth and environment…” he said. “I love to develop ways for people to engage more in environmental and Earth sciences through interactive experiences.”

The idea started with work Haut was doing with DEEPS faculty member Ingrid Daubar.

“I was mapping rockfalls in a Martian crater, and I spent hours looking at this one crater,” Haut said. “I started really appreciating it visually, and I kept being struck by the beautiful patterns I was seeing in the images.”

Supported by Brown Design Workshop and Brown Arts Institute grants, Haut went to work turning scientific images into tapestries. One draws on images from NASA’s HiRISE camera, which flies aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Another draws on images taken from the edges of the Antarctic ice sheet. The installation takes its name from a layering process that occurs in the formation of metamorphic rock layers.

“The art of ‘FOLIATION’ evokes that intertwining of Earth structures,” Haut said, “as layers of satellite images are woven together, first digitally and then through fiber art, to produce tapestries showcasing the vibrant and layered visuals of the natural world.” 

The geraniums, too, are ready for graduation

Red geraniums have become an easy-to-spot symbol of Brown’s annual Commencement and Reunion Weekend. The bold blooms appear in pots all over campus, including on many ceremony stages and nestled next to photo-op-ready landmarks.

“I’m always on the lookout for them as I walk around campus,” said Brown’s research greenhouse manager, Nicholas Vasques, sounding almost like one of the proud family members about to arrive on College Hill.

In mid-March, Vasques received 700 plant cuttings, each then the size of a pinky finger, and they were carefully placed in Brown’s Plant Environmental Center. Over the next nine and a half weeks, Vasques and his team hand-watered and tended to them and made sure the trademarked Calliope geraniums, a hybrid species he said was “known for their incredible vigor and persistent flower,” grew to their potential.

“It’s such a nice tradition to be able to grow them here,” Vasques said.

The custom of home-grown, custom Commencement geraniums was started in 1993 by Vasques’ predecessor, who still often stops by the greenhouse to check on the flowers in their oasis atop 85 Waterman St. On Wednesday before the big weekend, Vasques transferred 150 pots of near-perfect flowers to Brown’s Facilities and Campus Operations team.

Like this year’s crop of graduating students, the geraniums had grown and matured in a place of learning, and they, too, were ready to go forth.

Providence’s Christopher Dodge House welcomes generations of Brown families

Monica Hopton, owner of the Christopher Dodge House bed and breakfast in Providence’s Smith Hill neighborhood, still laughs when she recalls the inn’s opening in 2003. It was Memorial Day weekend, and all 14 rooms were booked with Brown University alumni and families visiting the city for Commencement and Reunion Weekend.

“It rained cats and dogs the whole weekend,” Hopton said. “Then the fire alarm went off at 6 a.m., and I’m running around the house saying, ‘There’s no fire, there’s no fire,’ but we couldn’t figure out how to turn it off because the house was still new to us. The fire department had to come, and everyone had to go outside in the pouring rain.”

Twenty-three years later, the inn still hosts Brown families every spring, including many who return year after year throughout their student’s time at Brown, from admissions tours through Commencement weekend.

“Often our guests first come when their child is still a junior in high school, and they’re touring campuses,” Hopton said. “Then they come to move them in, they come back every Family Weekend, and then graduation. Over those four years, you really get to know the families.”

Brown’s three-day Commencement and Reunion Weekend brings tens of thousands of visitors to Providence each May, providing a major boost for the city’s hotels, restaurants and shops. Even with some potential for rain again this year, Hopton said the excitement of the weekend never dampens.

“The weather is irrelevant,” Hopton said. “Everyone is still coming, and they’re happy. It’s an exciting time for everyone.”

Sowing seeds of support: Student-led memorial garden offers space for remembrance

Ahead of Commencement and Reunion Weekend, a group of students, faculty and staff planted a garden near Brown’s Engineering Research Center to provide space for community members to reflect on the lives impacted by the Dec. 13, 2025, mass shooting on Brown’s campus.

Using compost made with flowers placed at temporary memorials across campus in the wake of the tragedy, a student-led team created the garden in mid-May. Senior Emilia Pantigoso, a student ambassador in the School of Engineering who co-led the project, said it was a powerful experience to collaborate with her peers, faculty, staff and members of Brown’s Facilities Management team to plant the garden.

“Working on it together, it was very healing,” Pantigoso said. “Such a wide variety of people were part of making this garden, and it was a beautiful thing that we could share.”

The garden was cultivated in coordination with the Brown Ever True whole-campus healing and recovery initiative, which is focused on bringing together resources, programming and services focused on mental health, psychological wellness and ensuring a strong sense of community in the aftermath of the tragedy.

“I think the most important thing is to continue to remember and honor the [impacted students’] lives and share their stories, and I hope that the garden provides a sense of remembrance, inspiration and healing more than anything,” Pantigoso said.

During Commencement and Reunion Weekend, Brown Ever True ribbons will be made available to all graduating students, returning alumni and guests, and people are invited to leave flowers or other items of remembrance at the garden, located at 345 Brook St. More information about the garden, additional reflection spaces and Brown Ever True resources are available on the Commencement website.