Information for Commencement Coordinators

Thank you for joining us for the commencement coordinators meeting. A recording of the meeting for anyone unable to attend may be found below. Our next meeting will take place on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. via Zoom.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions by contacting us at UI-commencement@uiowa.edu. Thank you!

Additionally, I wanted to provide a quick correction! I mentioned that the commencement team would send lists to the coordinators on Nov. 21. However, the only lists we will send are to those using the special population form. Coordinators will follow the same procedures they did last spring to pull their own list of attendees using the Degree Applications and Commencement Ceremony BI Report. The team will follow up with additional information and instructions on Nov. 21.

Regalia Updates

Student Regalia

The most up to date information about student regalia is available on the commencement website, including important deadlines and links to the Herff Jones online ordering portal.

• Order by Monday, Nov. 4 to have the order delivered to the Iowa Hawk Shop and University Bookstore.
  • There is no additional cost for this option.
  • Orders will be available for pickup beginning Dec. 9 in the Iowa Hawk Shop.
• Order by Wednesday, Nov. 20 for direct home shipping.
  • The student is responsible for the cost of shipping with this option.
  • Orders will be delivered approximately three weeks after the order is placed.
• A limited supply of regalia is currently available in the Iowa Hawk Shop with additional regalia arriving in early November.

Emergency Kits for Ceremonies

Emergency kits for the day of your ceremony will be available. Please contact Gabby McIlvanie (gabrielle-mcilvanie@uiowa.edu) from the Iowa Hawk Shop and University Bookstore and Melissa Hibbard from Herff Jones (gradmidwest@gmail.com) if you are interested in a kit.

Faculty Regalia

The faculty regalia deadline is Tuesday, Nov. 19 for individual and group rentals. 

Individual Faculty Rentals

Faculty may rent their own regalia on the Herff Jones faculty rental page. There is a drop down for paying via Pcard (no tax) or a personal credit card (will include tax). The regalia will be shipped directly to the faculty member with a prepaid FedEx return label to return the regalia within one week of commencement.

Group Faculty Rentals

Last Friday, Gabby McIlvanie shared an Excel spreadsheet for placing group faculty rental orders for your college. Please contact Gabby McIlvanie at the Iowa Hawk Shop with any questions about placing these orders.

Faculty Fine-Quality Purchase

Herff Jones offers a sale package for fine-quality regalia for faculty in the fall. Learn more about fine-quality faculty regalia sale packages.

Regalia Contacts

Iowa Hawk Shop: Gabby McIlvanie (gabrielle-mcilvanie@uiowa.edu)
Herff Jones: Melissa Hibbard (gradmidwest@gmail.com).

Graduation Support Program

The Dean of Students Graduation Support Program provides financial assistance for graduation apparel and materials to students experiencing financial hardship who are unable to afford to participate in graduation ceremonies at the University of Iowa. The program provides funding for eligible students – undergraduate, graduate, and professional – for the costs of graduation apparel and materials. Students can find more information about the program, including eligibility details, and complete an application for funds on the Dean of Students website.

RSVP Enhancements and Deadlines

RSVP Enhancements

The commencement team worked closely with our partners in ITS to make enhancements to the RSVP before it opened this fall. Special thanks to Alysha Ahlf for seeing these enhancements through!

• More flexibility for student ceremony name options, including an option with no middle name
  • Official name
  • First name, last name
  • Preferred name
• Additional information about how the ceremony name will be used
• Additional information about name pronunciation
  • Thank you to Cornelia Lang and Roland Racevskis from CLAS for sharing their expertise
• The ceremony name also displays in the RSVP admin panel in MAUI
• Students can edit their ceremony name choice in MyUI
• Combination of the CLAS and University College ceremonies into a single ceremony title

See the slides from Alysha's Commencement RSVP Updates presentation for screenshots and additional information.

RSVP Deadlines

Nov. 17: RSVP Closes
Nov. 18–20: RSVP Extension

See all commencement-related deadlines on the coordinator resources page.

Commencement Coordinator Resources

The commencement team and the Office of Strategic Communication have put together various resources to support our collegiate partners throughout the commencement planning process.

Coordinator Resources Webpage

Please visit our coordinator resources webpage on the commencement website.

• Apparel timeline
• Deadlines
• Communications timeline
• Commencement attendance management information
• Order of Events templates
• Details about livestreams and closed captioning
• Regalia pricing

Additional Deadlines

We wanted to highlight a few additional deadlines that have been added to the deadlines timeline on the coordinator resources page.

Scripts

Scripts are due to UI-commencement@uiowa.edu by Wednesday, Dec. 4. These scripts will be used by individuals captioning the livestream of your ceremony, along with the ASL interpreters from Hands Up Communications. Additional guidance for scripts used for closed captioning is available on the coordinator resources page.

Run of Show

The run of show is due to UI-commencement@uiowa.edu by Monday, Dec. 16. A run of show template is available to download on the commencement coordinator resources webpage. We will share these with the president's office and other conferring officials, our colleagues at Hancher, the OSC video team, and the interpreters.

Order of Events

If your ceremony creates an order of events that you would like to have linked on the commencement website, please send it to UI-commencement@uiowa.edu by Monday, Dec. 16.

Platform Maps

A platform map for the CLAS ceremony at Carver is due to UI-commencement@uiowa.edu by Monday, Dec. 16.