Early Commencement Participation

Students wanting to participate in commencement ceremonies prior to the completion of their degree requirements must submit an email request to the Office of the Registrar. The following criteria will be applied as guidelines to evaluate such requests:

• The request must be made by email to registrar@svsu.edu.
• The request must be made before the close of the first quarter of the semester in which the commencement ceremony is scheduled that the student is requesting to participate.
• Basic Skills (remedial) requirements must have been successfully met at the time of the request - this is mandatory.
• The cumulative GPA is 2.30 or greater at the time of the request.
• General Education courses and all lower-division degree requirements (100 and 200 level courses) should have been met at the time of the request.
  • However, if this is not the case and the student is currently enrolled in the last of such requirements in the semester in which the request is being made, these cases will be considered on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the GPA that should be 2.30 or above
• If a student has more than 12 credits unfilled at the time of this request, they must include a list of each course that they intend to take in order to complete their degree and what semester they plan to take these courses.
• Note to Transfer Students: If the student meets all of the above criteria and is granted permission to participate in commencement before all degree requirements are met, and also meets the GPA criteria for one of the three Latin honors designations, such designation will be granted in the commencement program/booklet if they have 62 credits earned at SVSU at the time of the request to participate.
• If the student meets the GPA requirement for one of the three Latin Honors designations but does not have 62 earned SVSU credits at the time of the request, Latin Honors will still be granted for the commencement program/booklet and honors cords if the student can reasonably be expected to have earned 62 SVSU credits by the intended graduation based on the credit hours for which they already registered at the time of the request.
• Please note that the actual honors designation on the official transcript and diploma will solely reflect the cumulative GPA at the time of graduation (not commencement) and only if the student has earned 62 SVSU credits pursuant to the University Catalog.