Please bookmark this page for event guidelines for students and faculty. We will also be sending instructions via email.

Questions?
For information on registration and event details, please email gradacademics@graddiv.ucsb.edu.

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Pre-Event Instructions for Graduates

Instructions for Graduates

Pre-Event Instructions for Faculty Hooders

Instructions for Faculty Hooders

Doctoral Hooding Instructions

Student/Graduate Instructions for Graduate Division Commencement

Pre-Event Instructions for Graduates

  • Purchase your Masters or Doctoral regalia via the UCSB Campus Store.

  • Create an account with Tassel to claim your tickets and to provide a recording of your name.

  • Your Stage Pass will be emailed in early June (to your UCSB email address.) You will need to present your stage pass at check-in and again before you cross the stage for your name announcement.

  • FULLY CHARGE YOUR PHONE BEFORE ARRIVING.

  • Graduates and guests will be directed to park in Lots 22, 27 and 30, and no parking fees will be collected for those lots.

Instructions for June 12th for Graduates

2:30 pm - 3 pm

  • Graduates arrive at the Events Center/Thunderdome for line up (please do not bring any items aside from your phone/electronic stage pass)
  • Prepare for a security check with Student Safety Partners (SSPs) by making sure your cap is not yet fastened and unzipping your robe -- please review the list of prohibited items here
  • Be ready to show your stage pass for check-in

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm 

  • Graduates enter the Events Center/Thunderdome and wait for line-up instructions 
  • Use the restroom, etc.
  • Doctoral Graduates will locate their faculty hooder and line up together

3:30 pm - 4:45 pm

  • Graduates will be instructed to line up

4 pm  

  • The graduates will be led to the Commencement Green to be seated

4 pm – 5 pm

  • Opening program
  • Doctoral graduates called to the stage
  • Masters graduates called to the stage

Pre-Event Instructions for Faculty Hooders

Instructions for June 12th for Faculty Hooders

2 pm – 3:15 pm 

  • Faculty hooders and platform party participants must enter through Entrance 4 (Staff & Platform Party Entrance) to access Hatlen Theater. Entrance 4 is located across from the Performing Arts Theater in HSSB - this is the ONLY entrance point for faculty and staff.
  • Once you have gone through Entrance 4, proceed to the terrace outside the doors to Hatlen Theater.
  • All faculty need to check-in with staff outside of Hatlen Theater (map) starting at 2:00 p.m. on the day of the ceremony (Thursday, June 12, 2025). See here for parking instructions.
  • Faculty arrive at Hatlen Theater for refreshments and robing.
  • Faculty who are borrowing regalia will pick it up and put it on in Hatlen Theater stage.

3:15 pm 

  • Faculty will be instructed to go to the South West Entrance at the Events Center/Thunderdome to line up with their students
  • Find your students and await line up instructions

3:30 pm - 3:45 pm

  • Graduates will be instructed to line up

3:45 pm

  • The graduates will be led to the Green to be seated

4 pm – 6 pm

  • Opening program
  • Doctoral graduates called to the stage
  • Masters graduates called to the stage

Doctoral Hooding Instructions

Please read the following instructions carefully. While we will be there to assist you, it will be helpful for you to be very familiar with how the hooding will be conducted.

  1. Marshals will be there to alert you to when the time arrives for faculty and doctoral candidates to proceed to the platform (stage). As you progress up the platform, the candidate will hold the hood. A staff member will be there to ensure that the hood is unbuttoned, and positioned to hand off (draped over your right arm).
     

  2. The candidate will display their electronic Stage Pass (or paper one if you are a late registrant) to a staff member at the top of the ramp. The faculty hooder and candidate will be prompted by a staff member to proceed to the hooding platform.
     

  3. An Associate Dean will meet the student part way across the stage and take the hood. They will accompany you to the hooding platform and assist with the hooding.

    Tall students should bend their knees slightly as the hood is being brought over their head. When in doubt, watch what others do and then do the same.

    Faculty members, if you are hooding more than one candidate, you will hood the first student as the student's name is read, then wait in place to hood the next student.

    If there are two faculty members hooding a student, the Associate/Dean will hand the prepared hood to the faculty member on the right hand side.

    Special note: Re-buttoning and arranging of the hood should take place after the graduate and faculty have left the podium. Special celebrations (hugs, pictures, exuberant cheers) may take place off the stage at the bottom of the ramp.
     

  4. After the hood is in position, the student will turn and shake the Dean's hand and exit the stage.
     

  5. After exiting the stage you will file back into the same row you were seated in before, approaching it from the left.
     

  6. Please watch our two hooding demonstration videos:
    Hooding and Stage Crossing demonstration
    Hooding history