Rice commencement ceremonies are Friday and Saturday

MEDIA ADVISORY

B.J. Almond
713-419-9980
balmond@rice.edu

Editor’s note: B-roll from Rice University’s commencement ceremonies will be posted Saturday afternoon at https://rice.box.com/owlgrad15.

Rice commencement ceremonies are Friday and Saturday
Gen. Colin Powell will give commencement address Saturday

HOUSTON — (May 14, 2015) — Rice University’s 2015 commencement ceremonies will take place May 15 and 16.

EVENT: Rice University’s 102nd commencement. During the Undergraduate Convocation Friday night, students will cross the stage to receive diploma tubes and be congratulated; fireworks will light up the sky after this ceremony. The commencement address will be presented Saturday morning and degrees will be conferred to the group as a whole. Students will NOT walk across the stage to receive diplomas during Saturday’s ceremony.

DATE: Friday and Saturday, May 15 and 16.

TIME: 7:30 p.m. Friday and 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

SPEAKER: Retired Gen. Colin Powell, former secretary of state and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will present the commencement address Saturday morning. Broadcast media may record only the first three minutes of Powell’s speech.

LOCATION: Outdoors on Rice’s Academic Quadrangle west of Lovett Hall (rain location: Tudor Fieldhouse), 6100 Main St. Photographers must check in at the Welcome Center in Lovett Hall, Room 103B, to get a black robe required for access to the quadrangle and instructions for where they are allowed to shoot. They must be accompanied by a member of the News and Media Relations team to the area on the quad designated for photographers. The Welcome Center will open at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

PARKING: News media must use Entrance 27B on Sunset Boulevard (west of Main Street) and park along the right side of the road by the Student Health Center. Press credentials are required for admission through Entrance 27B. For assistance, call 713-419-9980.

CAMPUS MAP: http://www.rice.edu/maps/Rice-University-Color-Campus-Map.pdf. (Look for the red circle with No. 22 for the road where media can park.)

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Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,888 undergraduates and 2,610 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked among some of the top schools for best quality of life by the Princeton Review and for best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.

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