Graduation 2025
2025 University Commencement
Thursday, May 15 | 9:30 am | EagleBank Arena
President Gregory Washington will preside at the University Commencement ceremony in EagleBank Arena, which will feature student, faculty, and guest speakers. Guests also will enjoy live music during the event. Doctoral candidates will be individually recognized and hooded; bachelor and master graduates will be recognized as a group at their seats.
Doors will open one hour prior to the start of the ceremony and seating is open and available on a general admission basis to anyone with a ticket. It is advisable to arrive at that time.
As a reminder, tickets will be required for any guests of George Mason graduates to enter EagleBank Arena for Commencement. Please visit https://www.gmu.edu/graduation for more information.
If EagleBank Arena reaches capacity, the overflow viewing area will be in the Concert Hall on Mason Pond Drive, across Patriot Circle from the arena. Shuttles will be available at the South Entrance to transport anyone needing assistance to the Concert Hall.
College of Public Health Degree Celebration
May 17 | 2 pm | EagleBank Arena
- Bachelors and Masters graduates are individually recognized and photographed on stage.
- Celebrations include select speakers and performances.
- Caps and gowns are worn.
- Graduates must bring their Mason ID.
Main doors open for guests one hour before the ceremony and tickets are required.
Reserve your tickets at gmu.edu/graduation. Bachelors and Masters students can reserve up to 6 tickets for their Degree Celebration. Graduates can click the links above for the tickets they need, use their G# as their one-time use password, add tickets to their cart, and then finish their purchase to claim their tickets. Once tickets have been claimed, they can log into their Ticketmaster account and transfer tickets to family/friends. Note: Graduates must bring their Mason ID.
May 17, 11 am- 1 pm College of Public Health Graduation Reception
Join the College of Public Health for a reception to celebrate our graduates in Peterson Hall before the College's Degree Celebration. Food, fun, and merriment! Join your peers and faculty to celebrate graduation. RSVP below!
Note: Students must be lined up in the EagleBank Arena parking lot by 1 pm for the Degree Celebration.
Help us celebrate by sharing your photos!
Students, let's celebrate together!
We encourage Mason graduates to share their individuality and diversity through a creatively decorated cap.
Share your photos and well wishes for the graduates on social media with the hashtag #MasonPublicHealth2025! Tag us @MasonPublicHealth and you might see your photos shared on our account!
Additional Information
Questions?
Email cph@gmu.edu
Faculty and Staff Information
Commencement
May 15, 2025
FACULTY are strongly encouraged to participate in the Graduation events. If you are planning on participating, you are asked to wear regalia if possible. Please register here to be added to the list for any or all of the ceremonies.
Timeline
8 am: Doctoral candidates and their advisors meet for continental breakfast and robing at the EagleBank Arena upper floor East Concourse.
8:20 am: Faculty marshals are asked to be in position on the arena floor
Please note: Only the Platform Party will meet in the Hospitality Room, lower level. All other faculty, please report to arena floor to assist with student seating.
10: am: The Commencement ceremony begins at 10 a.m. and the ceremony usually lasts about two hours.
Regailia
To support faculty participation, George Mason will pay for the rental of regalia through the University Bookstore by any faculty member who will make the commitment to attend and act as a marshal for either Commencement or Degree Celebrations.
If you ordered rental regalia from the bookstore for the May or December 2024 graduations, you will be receiving an email from them confirming your specific regalia information. Please respond with your intention to participate. If you rented regalia last year and do not receive an email from the University Bookstore by Friday, March 15, or did not previously rent regalia, please email sm366@bncollege.com. The bookstore will need your name, contact information, height, weight, cap size, alma mater, and highest degree earned.
The deadline to order rental regalia is Friday, April 18. After that deadline, faculty may still order regalia but will be charged a late fee of $25.00. The university will not be responsible for this charge.
Rental regalia for spring will be available to pick up starting May 5, 2025. If you order after the deadline, you should expect a delay in receiving regalia. In such cases, we suggest emailing to see if your regalia has arrived before you make the trip to the store.
The University Bookstore requires the return of all rental regalia to the bookstore no later than May 19. George Mason University follows the guidelines for regalia established by the American Council of Education.
Faculty Advisors
Faculty advisors are invited to accompany to the stage and hood their doctoral students during the Commencement ceremony.
Doctoral candidates are hooded only at Commencement.
To participate and hood your doctoral candidate on Thursday, May 15, please consider the following details:
- Please RSVP for the event, and be sure to include your name and the name of your candidate.
- If you do not own regalia, please contact the University Bookstore to order regalia by emailing sm366@bncollege.com no later than April 18. (Please see the note below regarding regalia rental.)
- On May 15, plan to arrive at EagleBank Arena no later than 8 a.m. Enter at the loading dock doors. Join your doctoral candidate at a continental breakfast on the upper floor East Concourse before the processional lineup begins.
- The University Marshals and staff will direct you and your doctoral candidate for the lineup.
- You will process in and be seated next to your doctoral candidate. At the appropriate time, the marshals will bring you and your student up to the stage. You will hood your student, cross the stage, and then proceed back to the seating area.
Prior to the day of Commencement, please view the brief video on hooding instructions below.
CPH Degree Celebration
12:30 pm Faculty, marshals, and platform party guests should arrive at the Hospitality Room of the EagleBank Arena at 1 pm. Be prepared to go through airport-style security measures when entering the arena.
Please check in at the table inside the lobby area outside of the hospitality room. You will be directed to a light reception for the doctoral candidates, faculty, and marshals in the hospitality room on the 1st floor of Eagle Bank Arena.
1:15 pm – 1:40 pm: Student Line-Up: There will be two lines of students in Parking Lot A on the east side of EagleBank Arena, a bachelor’s degree line and a master’s degree line. Please assist students to line-up in a single file in alphabetical order behind the sign listing their major.
Reader Cards, Mason ID scanning, and Wrist Bands: Help staff distribute a reader card to each student. Ensure that students in your group have filled out the card which they will hand to the reader before they cross the stage.Staff will be scanning student’s Mason ID’s or inputting their G#’s into the scanner.
1:40 pm: The faculty marshal will direct the faculty to form a line in the hallway directly across from the Hospitality Room hallway by the loading dock doors to be ready for the procession into the arena. Honorary faculty marshals (retiring faculty) will lead the faculty into the arena and assist with seating.
1:50 pm: Events Management staff will cue student lines to move closer to the loading dock door.
2 pm: The processional begins into EagleBank Arena. The bachelor’s and master’s students will enter the arena in two parallel lines. One staff and one faculty line-leader will lead students into EagleBank Arena and count-off the students for each row. Walk with your students into the arena and take a seat with your group at the end of a row. Remember to save one seat for yourself and have the first graduate in line sit in the second seat.
Additional Instructions for faculty advisors hooding Doctoral Candidates at CPH Degree Celebration:
Just before the ceremony begins (around 1:40 pm), the University Marshals will direct you and your doctoral candidate to the processional lineup. Doctoral students should have their hoods on with their regalia, as formal hooding will have taken place at the university commencement on May 17.
Advisors will process in and be seated with the doctoral student. At the appropriate time, marshals will direct you and your student up to the stage. After your student’s name is called, you will walk to the center of the stage (designated space will be marked), place the CPH medal on your student, and then return to the seating area.
The Presentation of Degrees
College staff will cue students to the stage at the appropriate time. When your students are cued to the stage, marshals should stand in the aisle to facilitate students returning to their rows. Graduates should be discouraged from leaving before the ceremony has ended out of respect for their fellow graduates. Students who need to use a restroom should be directed to the college staff in the back of the arena who will direct them to a restroom.
Recessional
At the end of the Degree Celebration, the platform party leaves first, followed by the faculty, the doctoral students, and the bachelor’s and master’s students. Please assist by having students ready to exit row-by-row to their right (when facing stage), beginning front row to back row. All will exit through the loading dock doors in the rear of the arena. There is a reception at Peterson Hall for students, friends, and families following the ceremony.
Questions
Contact cph@gmu.edu.