KU News Release

LAWRENCE — More than 4,000 members of the Class of 2011 will take part in the University of Kansas’ 139th Commencement on Sunday, May 22.

This year, the ceremony will take place in the morning. Graduates will assemble along Memorial Drive at 10 a.m. The march down Mount Oread and into Memorial Stadium will begin at 10:30 a.m. Chancellor Bernadette-Gray Little will offer remarks and confer degrees beginning at about 11:30 a.m.

Students who completed degree requirements in summer or fall 2010 and candidates for degrees for spring 2011 are welcome to participate in the annual walk down the Hill.

The ceremony will be simulcast on a large screen in air-conditioned Woodruff Auditorium on the fifth floor of the Kansas Union for those whom the conditions in Memorial Stadium are uncomfortable. The ceremony also will be broadcast live by the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications on campus television station KUJH (channel 31 on Knology Cable in Lawrence) and rebroadcast on KUJH at 7 p.m. May 22 and 23.

Graduates, family and friends also can follow the action live on Twitter at twitter.com/kugrads, @kugrads. Graduates can share their thoughts and memories by using the hashtag #kugrads.

Sign language interpreters will be available in the bowl of the stadium. Reserved seating will be available for people who need special assistance, including people in wheelchairs.

If it is raining the morning of Commencement, an announcement will be made at 9 a.m. about arrangements for a postponed ceremony. The announcement will be posted at alert.ku.edu and twitter.com/kunews; on radio stations KJHK (FM 90.7), KANU (FM 91.5), KLZR (FM 105.9), WIBW (AM 580), KMBZ (AM 980) and KLWN (AM 1320); and on 6News (cable channel 6 in Lawrence). KU Info will also post the information at kuinfo.ku.edu. Students who signed up to receive alert notifications on their cell phones will receive a text message if Commencement is postponed.

If the weather begins to clear in early afternoon, the first attempt to hold a postponed ceremony will be at 12:30 p.m. Graduates will assemble on Memorial Drive at noon. If the weather doesn't begin to clear in time for a 12:30 p.m. ceremony, a second attempt will be made at 2:30 p.m. Graduates will assemble on Memorial Drive at 2 p.m. The last attempt to hold the ceremony will be at 4:30 p.m. Graduates will assemble on Memorial Drive at 4 p.m.

The consumption of alcohol on university property is strictly prohibited.

Commencement information and an up-to-date schedule of events are available at commencement.ku.edu. KU Info is available at 785-864-3506 or kuinfo@ku.edu.