Limit affects business, journalism, nursing, pharmacy, public health students
Students who will graduate during the ceremony at which Vice President Joe Biden will speak will be limited to four tickets, the USC Registrar’s office confirmed.
No official communication had been sent about the ticket limit to graduating seniors as of Monday afternoon. Questions about tickets are being redirected to the Colonial Life Arena box office.
Students will be able to get up to four tickets each from the Colonial Life Arena box office on April 24 and 25 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Additional tickets will be available to students free of charge on a first-come, first-served basis on April 28. Students must go to the Colonial Life Arena box office to get these additional tickets. Students graduating on Saturday, May 10 may attend the ceremony on Friday, but they must get a ticket.
The ticketing limit affects approximately 1,400 graduates of the Darla Moore School of Business, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, College of Nursing, South Carolina College of Pharmacy and the Arnold School of Public Health. This is the largest of the three ceremonies conferring bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
The decision was made by USC in anticipation of a high demand for seats, according to Jeff Stensland, a USC spokesman.
More information about graduation ceremonies will be emailed to students “closer to the ceremonies,” according to the Registrar’s Twitter.
Students graduating on May 10 will not have a limited number of tickets for family and friends. Boeing President James McNerny will speak to graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences and the South Carolina Honors College at 9 a.m. and NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. will address those receiving degrees from the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computing, the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management, the Fort Jackson Military Base Program, Interdisciplinary Programs, Palmetto College, the School of Music and the College of Social Work.