Western Celebrates Hundreds of Graduates Saturday
Western Washington University will host three commencement ceremonies Saturday, Dec. 16, to celebrate summer and fall quarter graduates and their guests in Carver Gym.
About 530 graduates are expected to participate in the ceremonies Saturday. Each ceremony will last about an hour. Tickets are not required to attend, and students may bring the number of guests of their choosing. Overflow seating will be available nearby to view a live stream of the ceremony.
Doors open one hour prior to each ceremony, and guests should be seated 10 minutes prior to the start time. ASL interpretation and live captioning will be available.
The three ceremonies will honor graduates of different colleges:
- 10 a.m.: College of Business and Economics and the College of Science and Engineering. The student speaker will be Madison LeFever.
- 1 p.m.: College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The student speaker will be Abigail Ott.
- 4 p.m.: Woodring College of Education, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, College of Fine and Performing Arts, College of the Environment and University Interdisciplinary Studies. The student speaker will be Sydney Gaylor.
Following the ceremony, graduates will have the opportunity to follow WWU tradition and place a small item representative of their time at Western in a time capsule that is later cemented into Memory Walk in front of Old Main.
Guest parking is free on commencement days and available in most lots. A downloadable parking map is available here. Visitors must observe regulations for accessible and individually reserved spaces. Accessible parking will be in the 9G parking lot, which is closest to Carver and served by a golf cart shuttle for those who need assistance. 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 available from the parking lot off Bill McDonald Parkway, just south of Wade King Student Recreation Center, that will drop off guests near Carver. Three shuttle buses will run in a loop from 8:15 a.m. to 6 p.m., and one of the buses is ADA-equipped to accommodate two wheelchairs per route. Guests using wheelchairs may take this shuttle or they may park in the designated lot for accessible parking in the 9G lot.
Click here for more information about commencement, including security information and items guests are allowed to bring to the ceremony, or email Commencement@wwu.edu or call 360-650-3432.
About Western Washington University
Western Washington University offers more than 200 academic programs on its main campus located in Bellingham, and at additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles and Poulsbo.
Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master’s-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report. The report also ranks WWU in the top 10 in the West—a region encompassing more than 500 public colleges and universities from Texas to the West Coast—and also spotlights Western as among the best colleges for veterans.
WWU is identified as among the most sustainable, green campuses in the nation by the Sierra Club, is known for being a top producer of prestigious National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hollings Scholars, Fulbright Scholars, and Peace Corps volunteers, and nationally ranked for graduates who go on to earn research doctorates. The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Academic Workplace report named Western as one of the best colleges in the nation to work for, winning honors in two categories: teaching environment and tenure clarity and process. Western is proud to be a nationally recognized First Gen Forward institution.