Graduates from the 2013 Graduate Division Commencement ceremony. Credit: Patricia Marroquin
This Sunday, 409 students will be receiving their degrees in Graduate Division’s 2014 Commencement ceremony. Once again, Commencement falls on Father’s Day, making it an especially wonderful celebration for our graduates who are fathers, as well as the fathers of our grads.
Graduates wait for the ceremony to begin in 2013. Credit: Patricia MarroquinThe ceremony begins at 4 p.m. on the Faculty Club Green, but if you are unable to make it to the ceremony, UC Santa Barbara will again be broadcasting it live on its Live Webcast 2014 page. If you post any photos or other social media items on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or elswhere, UCSB is asking that you use the hashtag #UCSB2014 plus the applicable hashtag #PhinallyDone or #MasteredIt. Your Tweets and photos will appear on the UCSB Commencement page below the live webcast window.
This year, UCSB is surpassing the 9,400 mark for the number of doctoral degrees awarded, and surpassing the 22,500 mark for Master's degrees awarded. Last year, UCSB celebrated 50 years of doctoral graduates. Our first doctoral students received their degrees during the 1962-63 academic year, so we are now launching into our second half-century of doctoral education.
Here is some other information to know about Sunday’s ceremony:
The guest speaker will be Dr. Mike North, UCSB Ph.D. alum, Discovery Channel show host, and founder of the nonprofit ReAllocate.
The student speaker will be Lucile Savary, who will receive her Ph.D. in Physics this summer.
The student singer is Colleen Beucher, master’s candidate in Music.
A student is hooded in the 2013 Graduate Division Commencement ceremony. Credit: Patricia MarroquinUC Santa Barbara will be recognizing its first recipient of a Ph.D. in Feminist Studies. Carly Thomsen will accept her degree on Sunday.
The first Master of Science in Actuarial Science is being bestowed on Sunday, to Tiffany Sun.
The Graduate Division ceremony is both the most colorful and the most traditional of UC Santa Barbara’s eight graduation ceremonies. Degree candidates are dressed in regalia that have changed little in appearance since medieval times, when the hood served much the same purpose as a modern-day student's backpack. Over their shoulders, master's degree candidates wear hoods that are trimmed in colors representing the different disciplines.
The colors you will see most often on our master’s degree candidates on Sunday will be powder blue for the master’s degree in education; orange for engineering; gold for science; copper for economics; pink for music; and white for humanities and social sciences.
Ph.D. graduates, if you are a little puzzled about the hooding process, view our how-to video below from last year on Managing Your Doctoral Regalia. More information for students – including marching; checking in at the Events Center, and photography – can be found on the Graduate Division student page.
Congratulations to all of our graduates!