Commencement Details
- The length of the ceremony is approximately 90 minutes.
- There is no summer commencement ceremony. Students graduating in August may choose to attend the spring Marsal School commencement ceremony or the December all-university commencement ceremony.
- Students receiving teaching certificates are considered alumni/ae of the Marsal School and are welcome at our ceremony. We hope you will attend!
- Graduates and guests do not need a ticket to attend the Marsal School ceremony.
- Master’s and PhD graduating students are also invited to participate in the University Graduate Exercises (Rackham) on Friday, May 3, 2024 at Hill Auditorium.
- All Marsal School graduating students are also invited to participate in the All-University Spring Commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at the Michigan Stadium.
- Note: Tickets are required to participate in the All-University Commencement.
Commencement Speaker
Stephen Henderson
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Host of Created Equal
Stephen Henderson is a native Detroiter who has nearly 30 years of journalism experience as a writer and editor, and a deep-rooted connection with the city that birthed him.
A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Henderson has also won more than two dozen other national awards for writing and editing. He was honored in 2014 as Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists.
He is a 1992 graduate of the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and is a former editorial page editor of the school's 130-year-old daily newspaper, The Michigan Daily.
Henderson’s wide-ranging career includes stints at the Chicago Tribune, where he was part of the team that built ChicagoTribune.com, at the Knight Ridder Washington bureau, where he covered the five terms at the U.S. Supreme Court, and at the Baltimore Sun, where his editorials won clemency in 2000 for a death row prisoner. Henderson also spent more than a decade at the Detroit Free Press, where he was the first African American to lead the paper’s editorial page and its first black Pulitzer winner.
Henderson is a founder of BridgeDetroit, a non-profit news organization that prioritizes issues that Detroiters themselves identify as critical. And Henderson is the founder of The Tuxedo Project, a literary arts and community center located in the home where Henderson’s family lived when he was born.
He hosts the daily radio show Created Equal, on WDET 101.9FM, Detroit’s public radio station, and two weekly shows on Detroit Public Television. He is a founder and executive advisor to BridgeDetroit, a non-profit news and engagement organization.
Henderson has a long-standing interest in education and actively engages with education leaders in the city and state to advance educational equity and justice, especially for historically minoritized children, youth, and families.
Other Graduation Ceremonies
In addition to the Marsal School's commencement, there are two other university-wide ceremonies to celebrate graduates in the spring. We've gathered information about all three ceremonies below to help students determine which ceremonies they're eligible to attend and may want to participate in with their loved ones.
Ceremony | Date & Time | Doctoral Hooding | Eligibility & Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Rackham Graduate Exercises | May 3, 2024 10:00 a.m. | Yes | The following groups are eligible to attend and may participate in the ceremony:
|
University Spring Commencement | May 4, 2024 10:00 a.m. | No | The following groups are eligible to attend and may participate in the ceremony:
|
Marsal School Commencement | May 4, 2024 5:30 p.m. | Yes | The following groups are eligible to attend and may participate in the ceremony:
Other details:
|
OAMI Commencement Celebrations
The Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives (OAMI) hosts additional Commencement Celebrations to supplement the traditional UM graduation, which are also held during graduation week, to express appreciation for the achievements, commonalities, and cultural differences that characterize the experiences of Middle Eastern/North African, African American, Latinx and Native students. Commencement Celebrations include:
- Asian/Pacific Islander (API) Graduation
- Black Celebratory
- La Celebración Latina
- Middle Eastern/North African Student (ME/NA) Celebration
- Native Student Graduation Celebration
More information on the Commencement Celebrations, including dates and deadlines to apply, can be found on the OAMI website.
Questions?
Please direct any questions about the Marsal School's commencement ceremony to soe.commencement@umich.edu.