Frequently Asked Questions - Commencement 2025
Dear students,
Congratulations on your graduation! Please read the FAQ section carefully so you and your family/friends know what to expect. This FAQ resource is updated regularly, so please check back often and stay up-to-date.
Important Note. Please Read:
If you graduated in August or December 2024 or are a candidate for January, May, or August 2025, you are automatically eligible to participate in the May 2025 commencement ceremony.
During the spring 2025 semester, all participation information will be sent to your email on file with the Office of Records & Registration. But first, please be sure you have submitted your degree application per the required due dates.
Questions regarding your degree application, credits, diploma, etc. can be found with the Office of Records & Registration. The process for receiving your New Paltz degree and other information can be found here.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR ALL GRADUATES AND CANDIDATES:
During the spring 2025 semester, all participation information will be sent to your Hawk or personal email on file with the Office of Records & Registration. Once you have filed an application to graduate, you do not have to contact the Commencement Office to see if you need to do anything further.
If you have a specific question not answered below, please contact the Commencement Office at commencement@newpaltz.edu.
We will get back to you ASAP.
Congratulations again on your SUNY New Paltz achievements!
Information for Graduates
The undergraduate and graduate school ceremonies will be held on the Old Main Quad at SUNY New Paltz. A link to the campus map, including parking, will be posted soon.
All 2025 commencement ceremonies will occur on Old Main Quad - Rain or Shine
Graduate School Ceremony 6 pm - 8:00 pm
Friday, May 16
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Undergraduate School Ceremonies : 10 am - 12:30 pm
Saturday, May 17: College of Liberal Arts & Science
Sunday, May 18: Schools of Business, Education, Fine & Performing Arts and Science & Engineering
Caps & Gowns and other graduation items, may now be ordered through the Herff Jones website.
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 is the deadline for students to place their order.
Cap & gown delivery/pick-up date will be announced during the spring semester.
You may pick up your cap & gown in the bookstore or request to have it shipped if you are currently off-campus.
Note: If you miss the Tuesday, April 1, 2025 order date, please visit or contact the campus bookstore directly at 845-257-3050.
All commencement regalia questions should be directed to the campus bookstore.
All SUNY New Paltz students who sign up to walk at Commencement can reserve up to four guest tickets for their ceremony. Due to limited reserved seating space inside the Old Main Quad and to be fair to all students, we are unable to supply extra tickets. However, there is plenty of space outside the reserved seating area for extra guests or you may check with a friend who is not walking in their ceremony.
Ticket information for the 2025 commencement will be released during the spring semester.
Our Undergraduate Commencement Ceremonies are organized by Academic School. If you’re graduating this year, your ceremony date will be determined by your undergraduate major.
But not everyone knows which of our five Academic Schools their major is in! If that’s you, please use this list to find your academic program/department and figure out which ceremony you’ll attend this spring.
As a reminder, undergraduate majors in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences will walk the stage on Saturday, May 17, 2025, 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Undergraduate majors in the Schools of Business, Education, Fine & Performing Arts and Science & Engineering will walk the stage on Sunday, May 18, 2025, 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
All graduate students will walk at the ceremony on Friday, May 16, 2025, 6 – 8 p.m.
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
- Anthropology
- Asian Studies
- Black Studies
- Communication
- Communication Disorders
- Counselor Education
- Digital Media & Journalism
- Economics
- English
- Geography & Environmental Studies
- History
- Languages, Literatures & Cultures
- Latin American & Caribbean Studies
- Philosophy
- Political Science & International Relations
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies
School of Business
- Accounting
- Business Analytics
- Entrepreneurship
- Finance
- General Business
- International Business
- Marketing
- Management
School of Education
- Adolescence Education & TESOL
- Early Childhood & Childhood Education
- Educational Studies & Leadership
- Literacy Education
- Special Education
School of Fine & Performing Arts
- Art
- Art History
- Design
- Music
- Theatre Arts
School of Science & Engineering
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Computer Science
- Division of Engineering Programs
- Environmental Science
- Evolutionary Studies Program
- Geology
- Mathematics
- Physics & Astronomy
Friday, May 16, 2025:
Graduate School student line up will be in Lecture Center North beginning at 5 pm.
Graduate students line up by school/degree.
Saturday, May 17 & May 18, 2025:
Undergraduate line up will be in the Athletic & Wellness Center beginning at 9 am.
Undergraduate students line up by school and major
A map will be posted during the spring semester
Note: If you have more than one major, please select one major to sit with. You will cross the stage when this major is called.
Two weeks before the May 2025 commencement, students will receive a notification about how they will pick up their Name Announcer cards. These cards:
- Capture your name and mailing information for our photographer to send you a non-obligatory proof to purchase.
- The card also will have a space to fill in your name pronunciation phonetically, if you have a name that is difficult to pronounce.
- The card is handed to the name announcer when you approach the stage.
Please check back during the spring 2025 semester for additional dates/time/location for:
Honor's Ceremony
First World Ceremony
Lavender Ceremony
EOP
No, the official diploma is not presented at Commencement. Diplomas will be mailed to the candidate's permanent address approximately six-to-eight weeks after Commencement from the office of Records and Registration. A diploma cannot be issued until all obligations, such as library fees, parking tickets, etc., are cleared.
Caps & Gowns and other graduation items, may now be ordered through the Herff Jones website.
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 is the deadline for students to place their order.
Cap & gown delivery/pick-up date will be announced during the spring semester.
You may pick up your cap & gown in the bookstore or request to have it shipped if you are currently off-campus.
Note: If you miss the Tuesday, April 1, 2025 order date, please visit or contact the campus bookstore directly at 845-257-3050 or visit their website.
All commencement regalia questions should be directed to the campus bookstore.
Commencement is a formal ceremony; please dress accordingly. The general rule is light weight, non-restrictive clothing. Men do not have to wear jackets, but should wear a shirt and tie. Please do not wear shorts, jeans, or sweat pants. Comfortable shoes.
It is recommended that candidates try on their caps & gowns to make sure they fit correctly and are presentable. Candidates are not permitted to accessorize their gowns other than cords or sashes from recognized organizations and departments on campus.
Yes, but we ask that all students please avoid profanity or other language that may be challenging for your fellow graduates and their guests. The University does not tolerate expressions of bigotry, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia or hatred of any kind.
May candidates who may be eligible for honors are identified in the commencement program with asterisks (*) and wear a white and gold cord. The recognition is based on courses taken at New Paltz through the fall 2024 semester. Final honors designation will be made after all work is completed and recorded.
Students who achieved a GPA of 3.30 and higher at the end of the fall 2024 semester will be notified via email during the spring 2025 semester on how to purchase their honor cord.
There will be two information sessions approximately 2 weeks before commencements. Dates TBA.
These sessions will provide information and answer questions about the ceremony.
A photographer will be on hand to take senior portraits in SUB 408 on the following dates:
April 8, 9 & 10, 2025.
These portraits are arranged through the Center for Student Engagement. For questions, please email them at cse@newpaltz.edu.
Information for individual school receptions TBA.
Information for Guests
Parking is available in multiple campus lots, near Old Main Quad.
A parking map and walking distance to Old Main Quad will be posted during the spring semester.
Yes. A shuttle bus will be provided to transport guests to and from the parking lots. A few gem cars will also be available to transport guests (including to the disability seating area). These will run throughout the ceremony.
Seating maps for the graduate and undergraduate ceremonies will be posted during the spring 2025 semester.
Guests with mobility challenges (i.e. wheelchair, walker or trouble walking) will be accommodated in the main reserved seating area. Your four reserved guest tickets can be used here. Due to space limitations inside the Old Main Quad, and to be fair to all students, we are unable to provide additional tickets, however, you may check with a friend who is not using their tickets. Additional guests may observe the ceremony outside the reserved seating area.
Please fill out this online form to register your guests. Students who register their guests will receive detailed instructions and a map with disability parking locations, a suggested drop-off point, and entry locations. Disability tags or license plates are required to park in the designated disability parking lots.
Yes, there will be closed captioning for live streaming and on site, we will also have an interpreter. If you require assistance, please contact the SUNY New Paltz Disability Resource Center at drc@newpaltz.edu or call 845-257-3020. If you have a guest who is hearing impaired, please fill out this online form.
General Information
In fall 2024, President Darrell Wheeler convened a Commencement Planning Committee whose essential goal is to provide our graduating students and their families with a memorable commencement experience befitting this important life accomplishment. The Committee includes faculty and student representation and leadership, in addition to those staff who regularly plan and execute commencement (e.g., Development & Alumni Relations, Facilities Management, Emergency Management, Sodexo, Academic Affairs, UPD, Communication & Marketing, Environmental Health & Safety, and others).
As part of this process, undergraduate and graduate students who are projected to participate in May’s ceremonies were invited to a polling event in October and asked for their input on potential structural and scheduling changes to the ceremonies. Key questions included whether to combine the Undergraduate Ceremonies into one day or to keep them over the traditional two days. The consensus from student respondents was to continue with the three days of outdoor ceremonies as noted above.
The Committee provided additional input and echoed the student polling feedback on the ceremony schedule, including for event safety, security and logistical needs. Participating graduates and their families and friends make commencement ceremonies the celebration that our students deserve. Yet, more students and more families on a single Undergraduate Ceremony date would add complexities of traffic control, safe ingress/egress, crowd control, and general security both for the campus and New Paltz community. Maintaining the above three-day event schedule helps mitigate these matters and keeps the ceremonies focused on the event goal.
Similar to other official University events, Commencement ceremonies are expected to run without interruption to celebrate our students as a whole and so that each and every graduate can be recognized individually for their achievements. This approach is consistent with SUNY’s Rules for the Maintenance of Public Order.
Should any attendee wish to exercise free expression activities, the University will provide an established zone for doing so outside the OLd Main Quad, within proximity of the ceremonies, as is appropriate under policies that allow the University to regulate the time, place and manner of such activities to preserve core institutional functions.
Anyone who attempts to exercise free expression activities during the ceremonies will be directed toward the established area.
At SUNY New Paltz, as on other public university campuses, the “Heckler’s Veto” is considered a violation of free speech and therefore disruptive conduct.
The University’s policy on the Heckler’s Veto is as follows (note bold text):
No person shall engage in disorderly conduct which interferes with the rights of others, including: criminal mischief (vandalism); recklessly creating a public inconvenience or disturbance by fighting; making unreasonable noise; using abusive or obscene language; disturbing a class, meeting, event, rally or speaker; or acting in a manner that substantially or repeatedly infringes upon or violates the rights of others, including their free speech rights (e.g.- sustained or repeated disruption so a person cannot be heard); obstructing pedestrian or vehicle traffic, or creating a hazardous or physically offensive situation by an act which serves no legitimate purpose.
Individuals who violate this policy will be asked to leave the Commencement ceremony.
SUNY New Paltz graduates frequently express their diverse identities and passions at Commencement, including by decorating their regalia, and their right to do so on our public university campus is protected by the First Amendment.
The University does not tolerate expressions of bigotry, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia or hatred of any kind.
Commencement marshals will be at the ceremonies and available to assist in maintaining a respectful environment that supports all graduates' Commencement experiences. Individuals seeking support may also use our Bias Response Reporting & Support process, including a Bias Reporting Form that is available to all students and employees.
