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Faculty at Commencement

Faculty Information

Commencement is an exciting time for our students and their loved ones to celebrate a milestone they will look back on fondly as they depart UHD to embark upon their future endeavors. Your participation as faculty makes this day truly memorable for our graduates. Your presence adds immeasurable value to the celebration.
 
Faculty Roles at Commencement
 

Grand Marshal – A recent awardee of a faculty award who carries the mace during the student processional and calls the commencement ceremonies to order. This faculty member is seated on the platform at commencement.

Associate Grand Marshal – A recent awardee of a faculty award who carries the UHD banner during the student processional. This faculty member is seated on the platform at commencement.

Banner Carriers – A faculty member who carries the college banner in the student processional. These faculty members are seated with the graduates in assigned seats during commencement.

Seating Marshals – A faculty who assists in seating students during the processional, and guides students to the stage for the awarding of degrees. These faculty members are seated with the graduates in assigned seats during commencement.

Faculty Attendees – Faculty who process in the processional and are seated in the faculty seating area during commencement. 

Regalia

Faculty wear their own regalia to commencement. Having the variety of colors and styles from your degree-granting institution adds to the vibrancy of the ceremony.

The university has a limited number of generic regalia offered to faculty to borrow. The borrowed regalia includes masters level black robes with a master’s hood of “drab” discipline color (felt) and UHD blue and red chevron (satin). Faculty request to borrow regalia during the commencement sign-up process.

 

Commencement Ceremonies

We look forward to your joining us for UHD’s 80th Commencement Ceremonies. Please review the information below to help prepare for the event.

University of Houston-Downtown’s 80th Commencement Ceremonies
Friday, May 8, 2026
UH’s Fertitta Center

First Ceremony
Ceremony Begins: 10 a.m.
(8:30am Faculty Arrival Time)

Colleges Represented:

  • College of Sciences and Technology
  • Marilyn Davies College of Business

Second Ceremony
Ceremony Begins: 3 p.m.
(1:30 p.m. Faculty Arrival Time)

Colleges Represented:

  • College of Public Service
  • College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Faculty Sign-Up

Please sign up to attend commencement. This sign-up is also where faculty request parking passes and provide information for borrowed regalia. 

Faculty Sign-Up Form 

Thank you to all who have signed up to attend commencement on Friday, May 8, at the Fertitta Center.

If you are not sure if you signed up, check the dashboard to see if you signed up already.

Please sign up by Monday, May 4, as we will distribute parking passes via email on Tuesday, May 5. We will use the sign-up list as the distribution list.

We still need more college seating marshals:

    • MDCOB: we need 3-4 seating marshals
    • CPS: we have one seating marshal (Demi Walker) and need 1 more
    • CHSS: we need 3 Seating marshals
    • CST: we have two seating marshals (Vaishali Chaubal and Mitsue Nakamura)

Please email Emily Leffler lefflere@uhd.edu if you would like to serve as a seating marshal.

Parking

Parking passes are no longer physical tags. At UH, we will use individual QR codes for parking access. We will send individual email messages to each faculty member on Tuesday, May 5, using the list of faculty in the sign-up who said “yes” they needed a parking pass.

Step-by-step instructions will be posted before May 5 here. We recommend reading the email from your mobile device. Please do not wait until the morning of commencement to initiate the process of getting your QR code.

Parking will be available in the parking garage across Holman from the Fertitta Center (3875 Holman Street, Houston, TX 77004), and also in the Blue Lot across Cullen from the Athletic and Alumni Center.

Faculty Entrance and Check-In

We will be adding this information, along with photos and diagrams over the next few days. We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we navigate this new venue!
 
Borrowed Regalia

If you requested borrowed regalia, we will have that regalia in the faculty robing area when you arrive.

Accessibility
We want you to know and be aware of the venue's physical expectations. Faculty will robe in the Cougar Den located in the Athletic and Alumni Center (AAC). Borrowed regalia will be in the Cougar Den. The Blue Lot is the closest parking lot to the AAC. Faculty will line up in the AAC, walk through the Indoor Track (where students are lined up), and cross an alley that separates the Fertitta Center. The processional will take a fairly steep ramp down into the Fertitta Center, process from behind the stage, and around to faculty seating. This is the route that is followed for all UH graduation ceremonies. We strongly encourage wearing comfortable shoes with rubber soles.

If you typically require accommodations, or if this route description seems outside your comfort level, we have a second option for faculty that involves less walking and no procession. Faculty who desire another route may park in the parking garage across Holman, walk through the “Jody & David Marrs Club Entry” toward the Legends Club to be robed. We will not have any borrowed regalia in the Legends Club. Once robed, faculty may move to the back of the faculty seating section and either be seated on the concourse level, or take the stairs. Faculty who choose this option will not process with other faculty.

For all faculty, the concourse behind the faculty seating will be open during the ceremony for easy access to restrooms.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, faculty who processed IN to the ceremony will recess OUT via the same route behind the stage. UHD representatives will guide you back to the Cougar Den. The faculty who DID NOT process will return to the Legends Club via the concourse behind the faculty seating.