Doug Miller
713-348-6770
doug.miller@rice.edu
Attention TV producers: B-roll from Rice University’s commencement ceremonies will be posted Saturday afternoon and Saturday night at https://rice.box.com/v/RiceOwlGrad21.
Rice University commencement set for Friday and Saturday
Last year’s students whose commencement was postponed due to pandemic will finally return to celebrate their graduation
HOUSTON — (May 11, 2021) – Rice University’s commencement ceremonies will be held May 14 and 15. The events will be livestreamed on Rice’s website found at this link:
https://commencement.rice.edu/all-feeds.
Here are details for reporters and photographers covering the events.
EVENTS: Rice University’s 107th and 108th commencement.
DATES: Friday and Saturday, May 14 and 15.
TIMES: 7:30 p.m. Friday, 8:30 a.m. Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
LOCATION: Outdoors at Rice Stadium, rain or shine.
Friday night: 2021 undergraduate students will cross the stage to receive diploma tubes.
Saturday morning: Commencement address will be delivered and degrees will be conferred to the 2021 group as a whole.
Saturday night: 2020 undergraduate students — whose ceremony was postponed due to the pandemic — will return to their alma mater to finally celebrate their commencement. Fireworks will light up the sky after both Friday and Saturday night’s ceremonies.
SPEAKER FOR SATURDAY MORNING: Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, author and columnist for the New York Times.
PARKING: News media personnel should enter Rice’s South Stadium parking lot directly off University Boulevard, between Greenbriar Drive and Stockton Drive, and show the attendant identification proving they’re with the media. After parking, they should enter the stadium through Gate 4, where they will be directed to the R Room, upstairs on the south side of Rice Stadium. In the R Room, reporters and photographers will receive black robes they must wear while covering the ceremony. They will also receive instructions on where they are allowed to take pictures and video. The R Room will open at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 7:30 a.m. Saturday and 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
CAMPUS MAP: http://www.rice.edu/maps/Rice-University-Color-Campus-Map.pdf.
-30-
This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
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 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.