• This is a ticketed event. Only your guests with tickets are permitted in the gym.

• If you have not already done so, please go to the Student Services Office to pick up your complimentary 4 tickets. If you have requested additional tickets, you will be contacted via email on when to pick them up.

• If any of your guests need special seating arrangements, please request on the RSVP survey.

• Even though it will be December, when all of the graduates, guests, faculty and staff are in the gym, it can get warm; please dress appropriately.

• Please arrive no later than 6:00 PM. Take your regalia to “C” wing second floor. There will be staff there to help you get your cap and gown on. (If you have not already picked up your regalia, please do so in the bookstore before November 30^th).

• Dressing rooms will be located in C207 (men) and C211 (women). You may put your regalia on in these rooms, however, please do not leave anything in the room when you are finished – they are not locked.

• Do not bring any valuables with you. If you have something of value, give it to your guests to hold during the ceremony.

• The staff will line you up in marching order. We line up by last name, alphabetical order within each degree program (associate degrees then bachelor degrees and masters). 

• Please do not get out of line once you have been put in the proper marching order.

• Please silence your cell phone.

• Make a plan to meet your family in the COMMONS after the ceremony.

• Nurses, Physical Therapist Assistants, Respiratory Therapy and other programs have pinning ceremonies prior to commencement ceremony. When these programs end, please go to C wing, second floor.

• We will have a photographer set up to take pictures upstairs prior to the ceremony as well as during the ceremony.

• We will have overflow seating in the Blue and Gold Room. The ceremony will be simulcast to the Blue & Gold Room – tickets are not needed for the Blue & Gold Room.

• Students graduating with institutional honors should pick up their honor cords in the Student Services Office.

• If you are a Veteran, and you have not been given your cord yet, please see Temple Kincaid in Morrison Hall. 

• The ceremony is streamed live on the campus YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/ksuashtabula. A link is also available directly from the campus homepage at www.kent.edu/ashtabula. 

• Social Media sharing is encouraged utilizing #KSUAGrads18.

• All photos from commencement will be posted on our Flickr account within two weeks after commencement. You may download and print them on your own.

• The ceremony itself lasts about one hour.

• The ceremony starts promptly at 7:00 PM.

• The faculty enter the gym before the graduates. They sit on the right side of the podium and the graduates sit on the left side (as you enter).

• As you process in, please walk slowly. Your family wants to see you!

• Staff will guide you to your seats.

• Programs for the ceremony will be placed on your seats.

• Men, remove your caps during the singing of the National Anthem and the Alma Mater.

• We will have staff members to prompt you when to sit and stand and when it’s your row’s turn to go up and receive your diploma (diploma cover!)

• Students who earned institutional honors (distinction, Cum Laude, etc…) and / or a dual degree will have this announced when your name is called during the ceremony.

• To help us pronounce your name correctly during commencement, please email Kathy at [email protected] with your name spelled phonetically if you think it is necessary.

• Take the diploma cover from the presenter with your left hand and shake hands with your right hand.

• After you receive your Diploma cover, pause just past the Dean for a photo, then promptly return to your seat by walking behind the podium. Students should remain standing until all students return to their row.

• Be aware, a video camera may be on you during the ceremony since it is live streamed to the Web and Blue & Gold Room. 

• After the Alma Mater you will exit the gym AFTER the faculty and be directed up the stairs outside the gym. Please use stairs in “A wing” to come back downstairs to enter the Commons. The hallway leading from the gym to Commons will be extremely crowded.  Please tell your family and friends to meet you in the Commons so they are not waiting for you outside the gym doors.

• We will be holding a reception in the Commons following the ceremony.

• Diplomas will be mailed from the Kent Campus six to eight weeks after the ceremony.

• Be sure to tell the faculty and staff you see on the night of commencement “thank you”!

• If you have borrowed student loans, you must complete Exit Loan Counseling by going to www.studentloans.gov, even if you plan on coming back to work on a different degree. You must “exit” out of the loans you have already borrowed.

• You must contact your loan servicer in the event you change your name or any of your contact information.

• You can access the National Student Loan Database by going to www.nslds.ed.gov, this is where any federal loan associated with your social security number is located, along with who your loan servicers are and their contact information.