Commencement
Scroll to bottom of sectionCommencement 2024 Details
May 4, 2024 | 10 AM | Mountaineer Bowl at Rady Family Sports Complex
Western Colorado University is pleased to announce that Commencement will be held on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at 10 AM in the Mountaineer Bowl at Rady Family Sports Complex. Following the ceremony, a reception will be held at the University Center for students, families, faculty, and staff.
In addition to the stadium, the ceremony will be streamed live on this page. The stream will also be available in the University Center Theater.
Since the event will be outdoors, we recommend dressing in layers and coming prepared for any type of weather. We also recommend you bring the following:
- Sunscreen
- Sunglasses
- Water bottle to refill
- If rain is predicted, ponchos are preferred so as not to block visibility
Immediately following the ceremony, everyone is invited to join the graduates for refreshments in the University Center. Highlights will include food and non-alcoholic drinks, a performance by Storm Pass (featuring two Western Alums), and access to the Bookstore.
General parking will be available in all campus lots, the closest being the Paul Wright Gym, University Center, and Leslie J. Savage Library parking lots.
Accessible parking will also be available in the Dolores Parking Lot, as that provides the most direct path to the venue. Accessible seating for those who require accommodations will also be available.
Photos taken during commencement will be available directly from Lifetouch approximately three weeks after graduation at LifeTouch.
To pre-order your photos, buy an AdvancePay credit online. You’ll receive a text message when the gallery is published, and the credit will be automatically applied online—just sign in with your phone number at checkout.
2024 Access Code | 476353GY24
Commencement Speaker
Western Colorado University is pleased to announce Camille Dungy as the 2024 Commencement Speaker.
Camille Dungy is a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University whose widely acclaimed and award-winning poetry and prose explores the intersections between literature, environmental action, history, and culture. Her latest book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, was published by Simon and Schuster in 2023. Dungy is also the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan University Press: 2017), winner of the Colorado Book Award, and a Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History (W.W. Norton & Co: 2017), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.
In addition to her teaching and writing, she has served in a number of editorial positions. She hosts Immaterial, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that examines the materials of art and what they can reveal about history and humanity. Dungy’s honors include the 2021 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in both prose and poetry.
Undergraduate - Prior to Commencement
Undergraduates who have not yet purchased a cap and gown may purchase them through the University Bookstore.
If you are not on campus, you can order these items online through the bookstore. Please stop by or order online as soon as possible to ensure you get a cap and gown. Availability is dependent on inventory.
Reader cards allow the announcer to know how to pronounce your name and allow you to sit with your friends.
Cards can be picked up in the Registration & Advising Service office the week of finals. Latin Honors cords can be picked up at the same time; you will receive an email letting you know if you are receiving cords.
If you are an NCAA athlete, in a club or organization, or have any other honors, pick up your stole or cord from the program advisor or coach.
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