Office of the President
Campus Messages

New Commencement Traditions

Letter from President Darryll J. Pines

By Darryll J. Pines

Dear Campus Community,

The past two years have taught us many lessons– that we are better when we work together, that we should strive for more connections with family and friends, and that we should embrace opportunities to celebrate.

Our Spring 2021 Commencement was a perfect example of this. Seeing our graduates from the winter and spring semesters and our 2020 Terps join together in person for a combined celebration of their achievements was meaningful and joyous.

We want to make this a new tradition by bringing all of our graduates from the academic year together every spring for a joint celebration at Maryland Stadium. We want our Spring 2022 Commencement ceremony and all others that follow to be bigger and better than ever before. Commencement is our time to unite, make connections and celebrate.

While this means we will no longer host winter commencement ceremonies, academic units will hold celebratory events to honor graduates and their families.

We also want our graduates to have the opportunity to celebrate with more guests than in past years. Because of the new location in Maryland Stadium, all graduates will now be allotted six tickets so that more family and friends can be included for this momentous occasion.

We thank our community for embracing these new traditions and look forward to our celebrations in the spring.

Go Terps!

Signature of President Darryll Pines

Darryll J. Pines
President, University of Maryland, College Park
He/Him/His

Signature of Jennifer King Rice

Jennifer King Rice
Senior Vice President and Provost
She/Her/Hers