The University of Maryland announced it will no longer host winter commencement ceremonies starting next semester, according to a campuswide email Thursday.
Individual academic departments will still hold events for graduates, the email said, but there will be no university-wide commencement. Instead, students who graduate in December will be invited to return to campus for the spring commencement ceremony.
“We want to make this a new tradition by bringing all of our graduates from the academic year together every spring for a joint celebration at Maryland Stadium,” university President Darryll Pines and Provost Jennifer Rice wrote in the email. “We want our Spring 2022 Commencement ceremony and all others that follow to be bigger and better than ever before.”
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They cited the spring 2021 commencement ceremony — where the term’s graduates were joined by winter 2020 graduates and spring 2020 graduates — as an example of what commencement could look like going forward.
Spring commencement ceremonies will be held in Maryland Stadium, and each graduate will receive six tickets, the email added.
“We thank our community for embracing these new traditions and look forward to our celebrations in the spring,” Pines and Rice said.
