Each of the four colleges to have majors split across all three ceremonies

After its initial announcement in Spring Quarter 2019 that UC Davis would be transitioning away from its traditional model of seven undergraduate commencement ceremonies, the university has revealed more details about Spring Quarter 2020’s commencement exercises.

The three commencements are set for Friday, June 12, Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14. Since the ceremonies will now take place outdoors at the UC Davis Health Stadium (formerly Aggie Stadium), the commencements will begin at 8:00 a.m. and conclude at 10:30 a.m. to avoid the high heat of the afternoon in Davis.

Whereas in previous years, the university held seven commencements, with each commencement consisting of students from a single college, next year’s three ceremonies will each consist of majors from each of the university’s four colleges.

This means that the College of Letters and Science, for example, will have its students spread across all three ceremonies, and students will walk across the stage with students from each of the other three colleges.

These revamped ceremonies will also be much larger than in previous years. Each commencement will feature 2,500 graduates and the stadium will be outfitted with additional bleachers for a total of 10,000 friends and family members. Each student will receive four tickets each and overflow, non-ticketed seating will be available in the air-conditioned ARC Pavilion, where each ceremony will be simulcast.

While in the past students were able to petition for additional tickets beyond those initially allotted to them, organizers are still working on details to see if this will be the case again.

“At this time I can’t confirm the ticketing process for Spring 2020 commencements at Aggie Stadium,” said Whitney Smith, the director for Ceremonies and Special Events at UC Davis, via email. “We are still considering possible options of adding additional seats to the field and utilizing the grass area for seating to potentially have ‘extra’ tickets to offer.”

As was previously detailed last spring, the goal of this shift is multi-pronged. First, the university is hoping to present a unified view of UC Davis — graduation ceremonies will no longer be college-specific, but will “put more emphasis on UC Davis as a whole, as one of the leading public universities in the nation,” according to UCD News and Media Relations. Second, the university hopes to attract more high-profile commencement speakers because of the larger potential audience.



Written by: Kenton Goldsby — campus@theaggie.org