It’s hard to believe we’re less than two weeks away from our 115th annual Commencement Exercises. We’re so pleased to be gathering on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 10 a.m. in Wieden Gym to celebrate our Class of 2024. Our Registrar Lisa Smith shared the good news recently that each student marching will receive six tickets for family and friends. As we’ve done in years past, those tickets are needed for entry. Lisa will be sharing more details about graduation later today.

Please note that our May 4th Commencement Exercises will be live-streamed on UMPI’s YouTube page; viewers can directly access the livestream starting at 9:30 a.m. on graduation day by visiting www.umpi.edu/livestream. Please pass this information along to family and friends. We hope that anyone who can’t be here in person will tune in and help to celebrate this important day.

Finally, I’d like to take a moment to discuss our virtual graduation ceremony. Our Commencement planning team is working to make this virtual ceremony available on our YouTube page on Saturday, June 15, rather than June 1 as was originally noted. We are so pleased to have such a large graduating class, and our Commencement team is working to ensure all pieces are in place to celebrate these graduates. Please help to spread the word as I know many people plan for watch parties the day our virtual graduation goes live. This virtual event ensures that ALL graduating students are recognized and given a special moment to celebrate their accomplishments, because we’ll always have students who aren’t able to join us in-person–whether they’re online students, YourPace students, or are from out of state and have already returned home.

The past few years have taught us how important it is to honor each and every graduate. We look forward to doing so in-person and online this spring.