Commencement

The Office of the University Secretary coordinates the University's ceremonial activities including Convocation, the Baccalaureate ceremony and Commencement.

For detailed information on the 2021 Commencement ceremony ceremony, visit the Commencement web site.

The Class of 2021 Commencement will take place on May 17, 2021.  We are pleased to report that, based upon the new guidelines very recently issued by the Philadelphia Health Department, we have now confirmed that we will be able to hold one limited in-person undergraduate Commencement ceremony at Franklin Field on the morning of May 17th.  This plan is contingent upon there being no major interim change for the worse in the course of the pandemic.  Due to public health limitations, we regret that we will not be able to welcome the entire Penn community to this year’s celebration. For this year’s ceremony, Class of 2021 seniors who have been part of our asymptomatic testing protocol this semester, and who have not had housing or access to campus revoked because of a Campus Compact violation, will be invited to participate.  No travel from outside of the Philadelphia region to attend will be permitted.  Family or friends will not be able to be accommodated at Franklin Field but they will be able to watch a livestream and the ceremony recording will be posted to our commencement website. Unfortunately, we are not able to hold any other in-person ceremonies for the Class of 2021, and we cannot include graduate or professional students at the in-person event. All Graduate ceremonies will be presented virtually, and graduate and professional students will hear directly from their schools about those plans.

Please visit the Commencement web site for complete details.

Visit a list of past honorary degree recipients.