News & Events

Commencement

Commencement is the official ceremony celebrating our graduate students and their work. Please watch this space for news about our 2025 Commencement ceremony. View our 2024 commencement day posts and story highlights on our Instagram account @bankstreetgse. #BSCgrad24.

Eligibility to Participate

Students who anticipate completing degree requirements in their entirety and who have submitted a graduation application are invited to participate in the annual spring commencement ceremony. Degree requirements include all course and fieldwork credits, the integrative master’s requirement (if applicable), and any prerequisites and/or workshops as defined in the catalog published the year of the student’s first term of enrollment and the individual letter of admission. All degree requirements must be completed or be in progress with expected completion by the end of the spring semester. Students who complete requirements after the spring term are invited to attend the following year’s ceremony. Students must be currently enrolled in the semester of their degree conferral.

Commencement 2025

Students who completed degree requirements in their entirety by the end of the Summer 1 2024, Summer 2 2024, Summer-Long 2024, Fall 2024, or Spring 2025 term and who submit a graduation application are invited to participate in the annual spring commencement ceremony taking place in May 2025. Eligible graduates will receive an invitation to commencement and must RSVP by the deadline given. Only the names of the graduates who RSVP for commencement will be called at the ceremony; all graduates will be listed in the program.

  • Tickets

    2025 Graduates: You will receive all commencement-related news via your Bank Street email. We will also publish information in the biweekly SSA Newsletter. This includes information on how to order your cap & gown, how to order tickets, etc. 

    Please watch this space in early 2025 for news about your ceremony. 

  • Robes and Academic Regalia

    2025 Graduates: In/around March 2025, you will receive an email to your Bank Street email address for the link to order your academic dress from our vendor with the ordering deadline date. Your email lists your degree type, which you’ll need to complete your order. 

    Please Note:

    • Caps and gowns are optional forms of dress for the ceremony, although the majority of students opt to wear them. The company providing us with this service will provide black caps and gowns, with Bank Street’s school colors (royal blue and gold) in the hood.
    • Our vendor will provide the academic dress you need to purchase: a black cap, and a black light-weight gown—with Bank Street’s school colors, royal blue and gold—in the master’s degree hood. 
    • A Bank Street sash will be provided free of charge to all graduates who wish to wear one.
    • Please note, caps and gowns will NOT be available on the day of the ceremony.
  • Venue Information

    Please watch this space in early 2025 for venue information, including ceremony date, time, and location. 

  • Diploma

    2024 Graduates, please note:

Commencement Program 2024

Scenes from Commencement 2024

Robin DG Kelley speaking at podium

2024 Honorary Doctorate Recipient

Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley
Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and the Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in US History at the University of California, Los Angeles, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa for his work in African American history and culture through which he is helping to re-envision racial hierarchies, self-identities, and the ways in which Whiteness and Blackness have been experienced and are experienced today.