14-04-2025
2025 Commencement ceremonies for Rochester colleges and universities
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Graduating students from colleges and universities are preparing to walk the stage next month.
Below is a list of the graduation dates for Rochester-area colleges and universities:
The Rochester area campuses will be honoring its local graduates on Friday, May 30 at 7 p.m at the Kodak Center.
Empire State University's Rochester ceremony will be held at the Kodak Center on Thursday, May 29. The university announced it will release more information about the ceremony as it gets closer.
The 2025 commencement ceremony will be held at CMAC on Saturday, May 17. Graduating students are ordered to report to the second floor of the main campus at noon. Guests must be in their seats at 12:45 p.m.
Admission to the graduation is free and there are no limits to the number of guests.
Hobart and William Smith's commencement will be held on the Quad on Sunday, May 18 at 9 a.m.
The college will reveal more details in the upcoming months.
MCC's annual commencement will be held at the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial at 7 p.m. to honor the Class of 2025 on Thursday, May 29.
The ceremony will be live-streamed on the college's YouTube channel.
Nazareth's graduate ceremony will be held on Friday, May 16, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Two undergraduate ceremonies will be held on Saturday, May 17. The Bachelor of Science ceremony will be from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., and the ceremony for the other degrees will be from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The commencement speaker is Chris Hilderbrant (Class of '99), a disability rights activist, policy strategist, non-profit executive, and wheelchair rugby player.
RIT's academic convocation will kick off on Friday, May 9 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., with the lineup beginning at 9 a.m. The keynote speaker of the convocation is entrepreneur and engineer Astro Teller.
The ceremonies will soon follow the rest of the day and into Saturday, May 10. Families traveling for the ceremony are advised to book a hotel as soon as possible.
Roberts Wesleyan will have two ceremonies on Saturday, May 10 — the Graduate, Professional Studies & Northeastern Seminary will be at 9:30 a.m., and the traditional undergraduate and B.E.L.L. ceremony will be at 2 p.m. Students at the 9:30 ceremony may request up to six guest tickets, and those at the 2 p.m. ceremony may request up to nine tickets.
Former Corporate Vice President of Xerox Emerson Fullwood will be the commencement speaker.
Undergraduate ceremonies will be held on Friday, May 9, after a baccalaureate mass, and graduate ceremonies will be held Saturday, May 10. Specific times for graduating majors can be found here.
Two ceremonies will be held on Friday, May 16 — the 9:30 a.m. ceremony will be for the School of Education, Health & Human Services, and the 2 p.m. ceremony will be for the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Business & Management.
There will be two undergraduate commencement ceremonies, one at 9 a.m. and the other at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 17 — both will be held at the Wilson Ice Arena in Merritt Athletic Center.
UR's commencement ceremony will kick off at 8:45 a.m. on Friday, May 16, at the Fauver Stadium at the Brian F. Prince Athletic Complex. The commencement speaker is award-winning journalist and NPR editor Tommy Evans (Class of '99).
After the ceremony, a food truck lunch and celebration will be held at the Wilson Quadrangle from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
There will be multiple graduation ceremonies for different schools, such as the School of Nursing, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Warner School of Education, etc. The full list of ceremonies can be found here.
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