More than 2,600 students are expected to cross the stage in multiple ceremonies at UTRGV’s Fall 2022 Commencement.
The ceremonies will be held at 9 a.m., 1 and 5 p.m. Dec. 16 in the Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg and 4 p.m. Dec. 17 on the University Library lawn on the Brownsville campus.
“We have tickets available to students participating in Edinburg Bert Ogden Arena, and each participating student will be allotted eight tickets for their friends and family members,” Registrar Sofia Almeda said. “In Brownsville, because the ceremony is outdoors and we don’t have the same constraints that we do with an indoor venue, like in Edinburg, there will be no tickets required and students can invite an unlimited number of guests.”
The commencement schedule for those graduating in Edinburg is as follows:
9 a.m.: School of Medicine (Bioethics), College of Fine Arts, Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, and College Health Professions.
1 p.m.: College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Sciences and College of Education and P-16 Integration.
5 p.m.: School of Social Work, School of Nursing and College of Liberal Arts.
The commencement schedule for those graduating on the Brownsville campus is as follows:
4 p.m.: College of Fine Arts, School of Nursing, School of Social Work, College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Sciences, Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, College of Health Professions, College of Education and P-16 Integration, and College of Liberal Arts.
The locations for the ceremonies were decided depending on the size of the graduating class “and the number of guests that we know students would like to bring,” Almeda said.
Students have the choice of which location and day works for them, their family and guests.
“We know that, sometimes, students will take different factors into consideration when it comes to choosing their ceremony,” Almeda said. “So the date may be more important, for example, the Saturday versus a Friday. For other students, we know that the location is more important and then for other students, it’s how many guests they can bring.”
Both ceremonies will be streamed via utrgv.edu/live.
Almeda encourages students to read their emails the week before graduation so that they are prepared and inform their guests on what to expect.
Criminal justice senior Joel Adrian Hernandez, who started at legacy institution University of Texas–Pan American in 2014, will cross the stage in Edinburg.
Hernandez is looking forward to commencement after being in college for “almost eight years.”
“First, my major was computer engineering,” he said. “Then I joined the Army [National Guard in 2019], took a break. Then I came back and changed my major to criminal justice and it’s finally happening.”
After graduation, Hernandez plans to pursue a master’s in criminal justice and “apply for law enforcement agencies, like Border Patrol or … state trooper.”
Madyson Sauter, a political science senior, said the commencement in Brownsville is a better fit for her because of the number of people she wants to attend the ceremony.
Sauter enrolled at UTRGV in Fall 2019 and is graduating early due to taking summer classes. Her original graduation date was Spring 2023.
She is looking forward to commencement and having her family together.
“[My] family has not been together since pre-COVID in 2019 because we were all kind of scattered,” Sauter said. “So it will be the first time that my mom gets to come back down [from Dallas] and my uncle gets to come back down [from Arizona]. So it’s exciting … that for the first time since COVID, [my family] will be together again.”
Asked how she felt about the difference in locations for both commencements, she said Edinburg is more organized.
“I know Edinburg has a ticket cap … and Brownsville, it is open so you can have as many people attend as you want,” Sauter said. “But it will be outside. It will be colder. I do feel like Edinburg is a little bit more organized in that fact. Like, you can know where you sit and where your family sits. … That’s the only thing I’m kind of worried about.”
Almeda responded to Sauter’s concern by saying that the “seating in Brownsville is available to guests on [a] first-come, first-served basis.”
Sauter encourages students to make the most of their time left in college.
“I think anybody who is graduating, if they do have those stressors like postgrad or knowing that things need to get together, they need to just remember that this is the time to really enjoy themselves,” she said. “Enjoy yourself while you’re here. Do organizations and clubs. That is, like, one of the things I wish I did more of.”
