Graduates are seated at the lowest level of Carver-Hawkeye Arena during the ceremony and will go across the stage to be recognized. Graduates who need accommodations in order to participate in the ceremony should reach out to grad-commencement@uiowa.edu at least three weeks prior to the ceremony to make appropriate arrangements.

To be eligible to participate in Spring 2025 commencement, you must be a Spring or Summer 2025 degree applicant who submitted an RSVP in MyUI prior to the deadline (April 13th at 11:59pm CT). The Graduate College typically does not allow students to participate in commencement ceremonies at times when they are not eligible except in rare circumstances. Approval by the Associate Dean of Administrative Affairs in the Graduate College is required to participate in a commencement ceremony other than the ceremony students are eligible for based on their degree application. Reasons for an exception could include:

• A significant health issue (themselves or immediate family members)
• Student has left for employment in another country before their assigned ceremony takes place
• A required clinical rotation (or similar requirement) outside of the state coinciding with the assigned commencement ceremony, such as Clinical or Counseling Psychology, Music Therapy, or MSTP students engaged in medical residency

In many of the approved exception requests, students would be permitted to participate in a ceremony immediately following the assigned ceremony. For example, spring degree applicants would be permitted to participate in the ceremony held the following fall. Early participation is very rarely approved. 

Exception forms should be submitted by the student. Submissions need to include a letter of support from the Director of Graduate Studies or the Associate Dean for Graduate Education, as well as a description from the student of the reasons for the exception request. 

The request form can be found here. Please direct any questions to grad-commencement@uiowa.edu. Forms should be submitted to the Graduate College at least one month before the ceremony, if at all possible, to allow time for a decision to be made.

Summer Degree Applicants

Summer 2025 degree applicants are welcome to participate in Spring 2025 commencement ceremonies. Students who will be Summer 2025 degree applicants and wish to participate in Spring 2025 ceremonies will need to complete the following action items in the order listed prior to the April 13th commencement RSVP deadline:

Enroll in Summer 2025 coursework, file a Summer 2025 degree application, and RSVP for commencement in MyUI.

All graduates are expected to wear academic regalia at their ceremonies. To ensure consistency and quality of regalia for our graduate and professional students, the University of Iowa has transitioned to rentals for all graduate and professional students. Only Herff Jones regalia will be permitted at commencement ceremonies. Regalia from other universities, other vendors, or regalia from an undergraduate ceremony will not be permitted. 

Required for all doctoral graduates: gown, hood, and tam. For more information on hood colors, please visit the bottom of this webpage.

Ordering information and a link to the apparel portal can be found on the Apparel page, including applicable deadlines and late fees.

All regalia must be in hand prior to your commencement ceremony. Regalia will not be available to purchase or rent at the ceremonies.

Rental hoods and gowns need to be returned. You will keep your mortarboard/tam and tassel. If you fail to return your rental regalia, you will be charged.

If you picked up or rented your regalia from the Iowa Hawk Shop and University Bookstore, you will need to return it to the Iowa Hawk Shop and University Bookstore.

If you had your regalia shipped to your home, you will need to return it using the prepaid shipping label that came with your order. If you lost your prepaid label, please generate a new prepaid label here.

If you have questions about the online apparel portal please contact Herff Jones at gradmidwest@gmail.com or 952-447-4449.

If you have questions about in store purchases and picking up apparel please contact the Iowa Hawk Shop at kendrick-scott@uiowa.edu or 319-331-3770.

Please visit the Apparel site for more information on ordering, including applicable deadlines and late fees.

Business attire is suggested but not required. Graduates are cautioned regarding their choice of footwear, as stairs and floor may be difficult to navigate. Wearing high-heeled footwear is not advised. Bags or purses may not be carried or left in the graduate seating area, with the exception of medically necessary items.

Complementary parking for commencement is available at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Traffic congestion around Carver-Hawkeye Arena is expected during commencement, so please allow extra time for your travel and parking.

Lot information and accessible parking details can be found on the Carver-Hawkeye Arena venue page.

Doors to Carver-Hawkeye Arena will open one hour prior to the start of the ceremony. 

• Graduates and guests may use the south or west doors, the east doors are reserved for Graduate Express Entrance only. 
• Please Note: The north doors are closed to the public and are only open for staff, volunteers, and platform officials. 

Graduates should arrive no later than 15 minutes after the doors open. 

Guests are encouraged to arrive as early as they can to ensure they are in their seat by the start of the ceremony.

Printed commencement programs will be available for the graduates on their chairs on the arena floor. Inclusion in the program is not tied to participation in the ceremony. 

A downloadable version of the program is available for all guests on the program page the week of commencement ceremonies. 

Order of events will be available for guests near the South and West doors.

Graduating students should proceed down to the arena floor and find the name card table for their last name. Volunteers can assist with name card location. 

Hold onto your name card; it will be scanned and then handed to the name reader prior to crossing the stage.

After getting their name card, graduates should find their seat on the arena floor. Graduates are arranged by last name. Volunteers and marshals will be available to assist in finding a seat.

Graduates should not have anything in their hands other than a name card throughout the ceremony. Cell phones should be silenced or turned off.

There are no tickets required, no limit to the number of guests, and no assigned seating for guests at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. There is no public elevator use during commencement, so guests are encouraged only to go down into the arena bowl as far as they are able to get back up. Accessible seating is available in sections K–N as well as the Feller Club Room. 

Detailed information on accessible seating and the elevator policy can be found on the Carver-Hawkeye Arena venue page. 

The ceremony will begin promptly at 7:00pm. Graduates and guests will be invited to stand as the academic procession is led to their seats on stage. Once the academic procession is seated on stage, graduates will view the Celebrating Iowa video.

There will be a brief welcome by Associate Provost and Dean Amanda Thein.

Doctoral degrees will be conferred by Associate Provost and Dean Amanda Thein. 

Graduates will be invited row by row to come forward and be hooded. Graduates will approach the stage with their hood draped over their left arm and their name card, which they will hand to the name reader on stage. Once their name is called, they will proceed to the middle of the stage where they will be hooded by their faculty hooder or a member of the platform party. They will then proceed the rest of the way across the stage. As graduates move from the stage back to their seats, they will have a professional photo taken by Flash Photography.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the academic procession will leave the stage. After the academic procession has cleared the floor, graduates are free to leave.

The Graduate College is seeking nominations for a student speaker for the doctoral commencement ceremony. While graduating students can nominate themselves, as well as fellow graduating students, nominations can also be submitted by university faculty or staff. The nomination form, found here, is now open and must include a resume/CV, a video speech sample, and a letter of support from a faculty or staff member explaining why they feel the nominee would be a positive and compelling commencement speaker and outstanding representative of their class. Incomplete applications will not be considered. To be considered, nominations must be submitted by 5pm on Monday, March 10th. We anticipate selecting speakers no later than Monday, March 17th. Final versions of speeches must be submitted to the Graduate College by Monday, April 14th.

Faculty hooders should plan to arrive to Carver-Hawkeye Arena no later than 6:30pm to allow adequate time to enter the venue, make their way to the floor, and find their graduate(s). Faculty hooders and graduates should be seated together in the graduate seating area once graduates have picked up their name card. Faculty hooders with more than one graduate should all be seated together. Seating in the graduate seating area is largely unassigned. Please be sure to check the name pronunciation printed or written on the graduate's name card for accuracy. Graduates and faculty hooders will be dismissed row by row to come forward for the official hooding on stage. Graduates should take both their name card and their academic hood with them up to the stage. After the graduate has been hooded, the graduate and faculty hooder will continue across the stage and return to their seats. Faculty hooders with more than one graduate will remain in the middle of the stage until all their graduates have been hooded and will continue across the stage with their final graduate and return to their seat. There will be marshals and volunteers on hand to direct graduates and faculty hooders both to the stage and back to their seats.

Faculty hooders who need accommodations in order to participate in the doctoral commencement ceremony should reach out to grad-commencement@uiowa.edu at least three weeks prior to the ceremony so that appropriate arrangements can be made.

All faculty hooders are expected to wear academic regalia at the ceremonies. University of Iowa regalia is not required – if a faculty hooder has regalia from another institution they are more than welcome to wear that. If regalia is needed for a faculty hooder, it can be ordered on the Herff Jones website. This site will be open for orders on February 3, 2025. The deadline to place an order will be April 17, 2025, at 10:59pm CT. Please note, this information only pertains to faculty hooders participating in the Graduate College doctoral commencement ceremony. This information may not be accurate for obtaining regalia for other University of Iowa commencement ceremonies. For assistance with ordering regalia, please reach out to Herff Jones directly at (952) 447-4449 or gradmidwest@gmail.com.