This May's campus-wide ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 19, at 1 p.m. in the Comcast Center. The procession of students begins at 12:15 p.m. The campus-wide commencement ceremony represents the culmination of a student's academic career at the University of Maryland. Unlike the individual college or school ceremonies, it is an opportunity for the president to congratulate the graduates as a group. The audience is addressed not only by a commencement speaker selected by a committee of graduating students, but also a member of the class who shares a message of inspiration and well wishes.

Although graduates do not walk across the stage in the campus-wide ceremony, it is in this ceremony that the degrees are officially conferred. At the end of the ceremony, the graduates will turn their tassels from the right to the left, symbolizing the transition from student to alumnus.

The university encourages graduates, their family and friends to attend this approximately 90-minute afternoon event marking the beginning of the two-day commencement celebration.