Commencement 2023

Tickets, Caps and Gowns

• Tickets for the Commencement Ceremony on Thursday, May 23, 2024 are available for pickup from the Administration Office in Room 404. Please email events@tourolaw.edu to let us know if you are unable to pick up your tickets. We will bring your tickets to the Tilles Center so you can pick them up from the information table.
• Caps, gowns and hoods have been delivered. If you do not pick up your cap and gown from the Law Center by Monday, May 20th, we will bring the cap and gown to the Commencement Ceremony.
• The caps, gowns and hoods for guest hooders will be at the Tilles Center in the Robing Room. Guest Hooders are expected to arrive at the Tilles Center no later than 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 23.
• Tickets are mandatory for all guests, individuals will not be allowed in to the Tilles Center without tickets.
• Only official honoree stoles are permitted to be worn at commencement. This includes TAPS, Law Review, and Moot Court only.

The Touro Law Center Commencement Exercises
will be held at 1:00 p.m. on
Thursday, May 23, 2024
at the
Tilles Center for the Performing Arts
720 Northern Blvd., Brookville, NY
Phone: 516-299-3100
www.tillescenter.org

• Graduates will report to the Tilles Center Main Entrance, no later than 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, May 23, 2024.
• Doors to the Tilles Center will open for Guests at 12:45 p.m. Tilles Center personnel will be available to assist disabled guests with entrance to the theater and appropriate seating.
• A Touro Law Center Information Table will be in the lobby of the Tilles Center and be staffed with graduation volunteers who will be able to direct students and guests.
• Faculty Marshals will assist with organizing the student procession. Your cooperation is needed and will be greatly appreciated so the student procession will be orderly and ready to enter the theater on time.
• The Commencement Exercises will begin at 1:00 p.m. - sharp. It is your responsibility to be in place in the line to march no later than 12:30 p.m. ready to enter the hall precisely at 1:00 p.m.
• Academic Attire: All graduates wear the Touro Law Center cap and gown. The hood will be carried over the left arm until the appropriate time in the ceremony when graduates are hooded. Students graduating with honors wear gold honor cords. (No other cords or stoles are permitted during the Commencement Ceremony except TAPS, Law Review and Moot Court.) You must have your cap, gown and hood with you. Hairpins are helpful to hold caps in place. Please have family members take charge of personal items, handbags, etc. Attire appropriate for the occasion is requested. Graduation gowns can be exceptionally warm on a hot day – graduates may be more comfortable without suit jackets.
• Professional photographs will be taken of each graduate during the ceremony. You will be sent proofs of your individual and class pictures for purchase. (Class photograph will be a composite of individual graduate, faculty and administration photographs). We request that family or friends taking pictures not get in the way of the photographer. No other professional photographers may be in the theater.
  Island Photography, Phone: 516-767-1234, Website: www.islandphoto.com

While we encourage the enthusiastic support of family and friends, graduates and their guests are expected to respect the solemnity and dignity of the occasion. Behavior that detracts from the ceremony will not be tolerated. We respectfully request that air horns not be brought into the theater. The noise interrupts and prolongs the ceremony and denies other graduates and their families the joy of hearing names announced. Violators of this request will be asked to leave the theater.

The Commencement Ceremony

Please pay close attention to Graduation coordinators and volunteers for directions.

- The Commencement Herald will give directions to stand, be seated, etc.
- Faculty Marshals lead the student portion of the Academic Procession into the theater.
- Graduates are directed to their seats in the center front of the auditorium.
- Graduates remain standing while the Academic Procession of Administrators, Faculty and Honored Guests enter the auditorium and ascend the stage.
- The Commencement Exercises are declared open and all are asked to rise for the National Anthem and to remain standing for the Invocation.
- Speakers will deliver their remarks.
- Groups of graduates will be presented by degree and completion date to Dr. Alan Kadish or Dr. Patricia Salkin for confirmation of the successful completion of degree requirements.
- Graduates will stand when their group is called and approach the stage at the direction of graduation coordinators:
                    - December 2023 JD Graduates
                    - May 2024 JD Graduates
- Upon ascending the stairs to the stage, graduates’ names will be called.
- Graduates will cross to stage right to be hooded and photographed with their hooder.
- Graduates will continue to stage right where a photograph will be taken with the Dean.
- Graduates will descend the steps for another photograph.
- Graduates will then return to their seats.
- All will be asked to rise for the Benediction.
- Faculty Marshals will rejoin their graduate groups and the Commencement Exercises will be declared closed.
- The Academic Procession of Administrators, Faculty and honored guests will leave the hall followed by the graduates.
- There will be a Post-Commencement Reception with refreshments in the Atrium of the Tilles Center.

What if graduation requirements are not complete by May 23rd (the day of the Commencement Ceremony)?

All May 2024 graduates participating in the Commencement Ceremony are considered to be candidates for graduation. Diplomas are not distributed at the ceremony. All requirements must be complete by the degree conferral date – June 4, 2024.

Graduation Honors

May 2024 Valedictorians, Salutatorians and Honor Graduates will be determined by December 2023 cumulative GPAs. Graduates earning these honors will wear gold honor cords as part of their academic attire for the ceremony and their names will be included on a page in the Commencement Program.

Professors are required to submit final grades for graduating students by Wednesday, May 29 2024.

Degree Conferral

Degrees for May 2024 graduates will be conferred on June 4, 2024. Immediately following the entry of degree information into the academic records system, diplomas will be ordered. It takes approximately 6 weeks for diplomas to be printed and mailed to graduates. Graduates will be notified, via Touro email, when degrees are conferred and diplomas have been ordered.