Commencement

Greetings from Gonzaga!

We are very pleased to invite you and your family to join your Gonzaga Senior, Graduate student or Law student for Commencement 2012 on Mother's Day Weekend, May 11, 12 and 13, 2012.  We have created this webpage so that you will have up-to-date information about the Commencement festivities.

***TAKE NOTE***  Our academic neighbor in Spokane will be holding their Commencement ceremony during the same weekend as Gonzaga's Commencement ceremonies.  Please, make your travel and hotel reservations IMMEDIATELY.

Dr. Thayne M. McCulloh, Gonzaga University's 26th President, was our Commencement speaker at our Graduate and Undergraduate Commencement ceremonies in May, 2011.  If you scroll to the bottom of this page, you can see and hear the address he gave at this year's Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony.

As you can see to the left, information has been categorized for Graduate Students, Law Students, and Seniors.   Click on the category of interest to you and if you have additional questions after you have read through the "Dates & Events" and the "Frequently Asked Questions" pages in each section, the easiest way to reach me is by e-mail at: prusch@gu.gonzaga.edu. You can also call me at 509-313-5571 — though please bear in mind that I am hard to reach during the weeks leading up to the Commencement weekend as we are quite frantically preparing for the big event.

I get MANY phone calls and e-mails asking about tickets for the Commencement ceremonies or for the Baccalaureate Masses. 2012 SENIOR COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY TICKETS REQUIRED:  Because of the large number of 2012 seniors who will be graduating, we are carefully making plans to ensure that we can safely and comfortably accommodate our seniors and their family members and guests in the Spokane Arena.  We will be allocating tickets to each of our seniors for admission into the Arena.  By February 1, we will ask our seniors the exact number of tickets each senior will require; one ticket for the senior plus the total number of family members or guests who will require tickets.  We will encourage our seniors to be in communication with their parents to work together to determine the number of tickets each family will need.  Those tickets will be distributed to the seniors as they pick up their academic robes in May.   Law and graduate students may invite as many guests as they wish to their Commencement ceremonies in the McCarthey Athletic Center and tickets are not required.  No tickets will be required for admission to the Baccalaureate Mass.

CEWard-National is the firm which handles the selling of graduation announcements and accessories as well as academic attire. You may visit their website at: www.cewardnational.com

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Gonzaga University campus, please view our Campus Map.

We also provide a list of area hotels. PLEASE NOTE - I borrow this list from our Admissions Office and while the hotels found on this list often offer special Gonzaga rates, these special rates are not available during certain blackout dates. It is quite possible that this might be the case during Commencement. So remember, hotels will fill completely and early!!! We encourage you to make your reservations as soon as possible.

We look forward to seeing you on campus for the Commencement Weekend 2012!

Susie Prusch
Manager, University Events
prusch@gu.gonzaga.edu

Watch President McCulloh's commencement address to the Gonzaga University graduating Class of 2011