Congrats, Viks! WWU to hold December Commencement Saturday

Western Washington University will host three commencement ceremonies Saturday, Dec. 10 to celebrate graduates and their families.

About 769 undergraduate and graduate students are completing their degrees fall quarter. Saturday’s Commencement ceremonies in Carver will honor graduates from fall and summer quarters along with more than 100 alumni who graduated in virtual ceremonies from March 2020 to June 2021. Tickets are not required to attend the ceremonies, and each ceremony is expected to last about an hour:

• 10 a.m.: The College of Business and Economics and the College of Science and Engineering. The student speaker is Petra McDonnell-Ingoglia of Tumwater.
• 1 p.m.: The College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The student speaker is Karina Avila of Skagit Valley.
• 4 p.m.: The College of the Environment, the College of Fine and Performing Arts, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, University Interdisciplinary Studies and Woodring College of Education. The student speaker is Katie Caines of Aldergrove, B.C.

Doors open one hour prior to each ceremony, and guests should be seated 10 minutes prior to the ceremony start time. ASL interpretation and live captioning will be available.

Graduates must make reservations to participate in the ceremonies and are asked to share the number of guests they plan to bring. Carver Gym is expected to accommodate all guests, but overflow seating will be available near Carver in SMATE, the Science, Math and Technology Education building, where the ceremony will be shown on theater-style screens in ground-floor lecture halls. The ceremony also will be streamed live; click on “Live Streaming” at registrar.wwu.edu/december-commencement.

Following the ceremony, graduates will have the opportunity to follow WWU tradition and place a small item representative of their experiences at Western into a time capsule that will be cemented into Memory Walk in front of Old Main. Guest parking is free during commencement and available in most lots. A downloadable parking map is available here. Visitors must observe regulations for accessible and individually reserved spaces. Disability parking will be in the 9G parking lot, where a golf cart shuttle will be available for those who need assistance getting to the accessible entrance at Carver. Visitors are also advised to arrive early to avoid traffic congestion and to allow for travel time between the parking lots and Carver.

For those parking in the south campus parking lots, there will be a free shuttle service to Carver, stopping in the upper C lot off Bill McDonald Parkway just south of the Wade King Student Recreation Center. Three shuttle buses will run a loop between the upper C lot and Carver from 8:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. One of the three shuttles will accommodate two wheelchairs.

Due to construction on the south side of campus, South College Way is open only to one-way, northbound traffic. Drivers may get to the C lots and the shuttle stop by staying on Bill McDonald Parkway. Those parking in 12G or 17G may use South College Way.

For more information about December Commencement, visit registrar.wwu.edu/December-commencement, email Commencement@wwu.edu or call 360-650-3432.