Media Information: Spring Commencement - University of Maryland

WHAT:
The University of Maryland will celebrate the graduation of more than 7700 students this weekend. The main spring commencement exercise takes place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 20 in the Comcast Center.

5,443 Terps have applied for bachelor's degrees, 1712 for master's degrees and 548 for doctoral degrees.

Individual schools and departments will hold their own ceremonies on Sunday, May 20 and Monday, May 21 at various times and locations. Please see the Spring Commencement 2012 website for details.

See below for information on live and streaming coverage of our commencement events.

WHO:
John Berry - the director of the Office of Personnel Management - will be the featured commencement speaker on May 20. He is a 1980 graduate of the University of Maryland, having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government & Politics. The student medalist is Jenny Wang. The student speaker is Heungkook "HK" Stephens

Individual college ceremonies will take place on Sunday and Monday, May 20 and 21 at various times and locations. Click here for details.

Comcast Center is located on Paint Branch Dr. near the intersection of Paint Branch Dr. and Route 193 (University Blvd.) Click here for directions.

PARKING:
MEDIA - For the campus-wide ceremony, members of the media may park in Lot FF (the west end of Lot 9B). Please enter Comcast through the Media Entrance, located on ground level, to the right of the main entrance steps. You must show your media credentials to be admitted into the building.

GUESTS and GRADUATES -- For the campus-wide commencement ceremony, guests and graduates will be directed to the parking area closest to the Comcast Center.

Shuttle-UM service will be available from the College Park Metro station to the Comcast Center and individual departmental ceremonies between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 20. Shuttle service will also be available from the College Park Metro station to individual departmental ceremonies between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Monday, May 21. Visitors requiring special handicap transportation the day of commencement should call dispatch services at 301-314-0318. Visitors with parking question can call 301-314-PARK. See the Spring Commencement website for driving directions.

LIVE/STREAMING OF EVENT:
The University of Maryland's cable TV station (UMTV) - will carry the main commencement ceremony at 1 p.m. on Sunday, as well as the Business and Engineering Commencement Expercises, LIVE in both Prince George's and Montgomery Counties. On campus, you can watch UMTV on channel 38. Comcast customers can watch on Channel 73 in Prince George's County and on Channel 2 in Montgomery County. On Verizon, commencement will be carried on Channel 40 in both counties.

On Sunday, the main commencement ceremony at 1 p.m. and the Robert H. Smith School of Business Commencement at 5:30 p.m. will be streamed live. On Monday, the A. James Clark School of Engineering Commencement will be streamed at 4 p.m.(requires Silverlight plugin for Intel Mac and PC). For the first time, the Clark School event will also be available on your smartphone or slate.

The main commencement exercise will be fed live by fiber to Verizon's AVOC switch. Media wishing to take a live feed of the event should contact:

Tiffany Warnock
Encompass Digital Media
678-421-6826
Website

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