UNC-Chapel Hill commencement moves from longtime Mother’s Day date. When is it now?
After years of holding its annual commencement ceremony on Mother’s Day morning, UNC-Chapel Hill will move away from that tradition this year — not only holding the event on a different day, but also at a different time.
The university announced Thursday that the 2024 spring commencement ceremony will be held on May 11 — a Saturday — at 7 p.m. The location of the ceremony, Kenan Stadium, will remain the same.
“We have moved to an evening ceremony to provide a more celebratory atmosphere for our graduates and offer families coming from long distances more time to return home on Sunday,” the university said in the announcement. “The Saturday date also provides us with flexibility to move the ceremony in case of severe weather.”
If the event is postponed due to weather, it will be held on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 12, at 9 a.m., also in Kenan Stadium.
The university’s doctoral hooding ceremony will take place before the larger commencement ceremony, beginning May 11 at 9 a.m. in the Dean E. Smith Center. Academic departments and schools will host additional ceremonies for their students throughout the commencement weekend, beginning on Thursday, May 9.
Tickets to the Saturday evening ceremony are not required for graduating students, nor their families or other guests. Gates to Kenan Stadium will open at 6 p.m. on May 11.
The ceremony’s move to Saturday evening is a break from a long-held tradition at the university and in Chapel Hill, where local restaurants often filled up with reservations weeks in advance to celebrate both new graduates and the Mother’s Day holiday. Former UNC General Alumni Association President Doug Dibbert wrote in 2004 that commencement and the holiday first fell on the same day in 1972.
The ceremony has been held on days other than Mother’s Day at least two times in recent years, though. The Class of 2020 celebrated a belated commencement in October 2021, following the traditional May ceremony being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Class of 2021 celebrated their commencement in five ceremonies over three days the weekend following Mother’s Day, with social distancing protocols in place, also due to the pandemic.
UNC media relations director Kevin Best told The N&O by email that the ceremony was also held a week after Mother’s Day in 2002.
The keynote speaker for the 2024 commencement ceremony has not been announced.
More information about the university’s commencement ceremonies is available at commencement.unc.edu.
This story was originally published October 20, 2023 at 10:53 AM.
