AUSTIN, Texas—About 7,440 students will be conferred their degrees at The University of Texas at Austin May 19 when they join their families and friends at 8 p.m. in the 124th Spring Commencement ceremony on the university’s Main Mall.
The festive celebration, which will end with a fireworks display and the singing of "The Eyes of Texas," traditionally draws thousands of people to the campus from throughout the state and beyond. The university’s Tower will be illuminated orange with "07" displayed on the sides of the building.
The candidates for graduation this spring semester include 557 doctor’s degree, 1,627 master’s degree, 4,821 bachelor’s degree and 436 law school students.
David M. Oshinsky, the Jack S. Blanton, Sr. Chair in History in the Department of History at The University of Texas at Austin and 2006 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in the history category, will be the commencement speaker. Oshinsky, who is also the Raymond Dickson Centennial Endowed Teaching Fellow, received the Pulitzer Prize in April 2006 for his book "Polio: An American Story," which details America’s obsession with the disease in the 1940s and 1950s.
Families and friends arriving early for the event will be entertained by a steel pan musical performance at 6:30 p.m., followed by a 7 p.m. carillon prelude and a 7:20 p.m. concert featuring choral singers and a wind ensemble. The procession of degree candidates at 8 p.m. begins the ceremony.
Public seating on the Main and South Malls will not open until 5 p.m. when all work in the event arena is complete and event personnel are in place for the evening ceremony. At 5 p.m., admission to the Main and South Malls will be on a first come, first served basis so everyone planning to attend the ceremony will have an equal opportunity for seating. For this reason, it is not possible to save seats. No tickets are required for commencement guests. Beginning at 6 p.m., guest seating also will be available in adjacent indoor air-conditioned locations where a live video telecast can be viewed.
Parking for commencement activities is free in designated areas on a first come, first served basis. On Saturday, with the exception of spaces marked "At All Times," all university parking garages and most surface lots are available. Parking information for visitors is available online.
Parking garages are located as follows:
- San Jacinto Garage (SJG) on the east side of San Jacinto Boulevard just north of 24th Street.
- Brazos Garage (BRG) on the northeast corner of Brazos Street and Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Boulevard.
- 27th Street Garage (TSG) on the southeast corner of 27th Street and University Avenue.
- Manor Garage (MAG) on the southeast corner of Robert Dedman Drive and Clyde Littlefield Drive.
- Speedway Garage (SWG) on the southwest corner of Speedway and 27th Street.
- Trinity Garage (TRG) on the southeast corner of Trinity Street and Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Boulevard.
More information about the 124th Spring Commencement is available online.
Note to editors/producers: Parking for print and broadcast news media representatives is available in Lot F-11 (north of Gregory Gym) near Speedway Street, by showing news affiliation identification to guards at entrances. Parking areas in Lot F-11 for "live" television microwave and satellite vehicles will be marked by orange cones. Television photographers may set up cameras on the media platform on the Main Mall and plug into a mult-box that will send their audio and video signals via fiber optic cable to another mult-box near their truck in Lot F-11. The university also will provide a live feed from its own cameras recording the event.
For more information contact: Robert D. Meckel, Office of Public Affairs, 512-475-7847.
