MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University campus is ready to celebrate another round of graduates as part of the 2025 Spring Commencement ceremonies.
The first round of ceremonies will take place on Friday, May 16, starting at 9 a.m., where the WVU College of Law will host the first ceremonies that will be hosted at the WVU Coliseum over the next three days. Ceremonies will be hosted in three separate blocks over the course of three days, with each one scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, with Sunday ceremonies scheduled for 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. WVU Director of Strategic Communications Shauna Johnson expects the Morgantown area to be crowded, as over 4,100 graduates are expected to walk the podium this weekend.
“If you’ve never been to a university commencement ceremony, they’re very well done,” said Johnson. “They always close with singing Take Me Home, Country Roads, which is always a nice moment for everyone in the Coliseum and for all of the graduates to just link arms and take that moment and celebrate their accomplishments.”
After the WVU College of Law concludes ceremonies on Friday, the WVU School of Nursing, School of Pharmacy, School of Public Health, and School of Dentistry will commemorate their graduating classes at noon at the Coliseum. Ceremonies will conclude on Friday with School of Medicine doctoral and master’s program graduates as well as any professional degrees. That will be followed by Saturday’s ceremonies, where the WVU College of Creative Arts and Media will have their commemoration begin at 9 a.m., with ceremonies for the Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Chambers College of Business and Economics taking place after that.
“9 a.m. ceremony is the College of Creative Arts and Media, 12:30 p.m. is the Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and 4:00 p.m. is the John Chambers College of Business and Economics,” said Johnson on the Saturday schedule.
Ceremonies will wrap up on Sunday with the WVU College of Applied Human Sciences commencement scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. That will be followed by the commencement ceremony for the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, with the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences concluding ceremonies at 4:30 p.m. According to Johnson, the final ceremony, where soon-to-be-retiring WVU President Gordon Gee is scheduled to make his final commencement speech, is expected to be attended by over 1,000 graduates who will be tossing their caps.
“At 4:30 is the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, which will be the largest of all of the ceremonies,” said Johnson. “We may see 1,000 participating graduates in that ceremony alone, that afternoon Sunday window will be the toughest for traffic over by the Coliseum.”
Johnson and other WVU commencement officials urge Morgantown area residents to either give themselves plenty of time to travel around town during commencement weekend, particularly around Patteson Drive. This is to account for thousands of friends and family members of graduates who will be celebrating their loved ones and the years of hard work to get there. With over 4,100 graduates expected to walk the podium during WVU Spring Commencement Weekend, Morgantown residents are urged to be prepared for extra traffic around the WVU campus.
“All of these ceremonies are at the Coliseum, so keep that in mind for traffic purposes,” said Johnson. “Our West Virginia University police officers and others will be out directing traffic, but there will be times when people will be coming in and leaving at the same time, so just be prepared for that.”
A livestream of each ceremony will be available on the WVU Commencement website, each stream will start 15 minutes prior to the start of each ceremony.