Nearly 2,000 graduating students will walk in three commencement exercises in UAB’s Bartow Arena, which will be streamed online.Nearly 2,000 graduating students will walk in commencement exercises April 28-29 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. More than 2,800 students are eligible to graduate from UAB for the spring semester.
The university will host three ceremonies in Bartow Arena:
- 3 p.m. Friday, April 28, UAB Graduate School
- 9:30 a.m. Saturday, April 29, College of Arts and Sciences and School of Education
- 2 p.m. Saturday, April 29, all other undergraduates
Full details about the ceremonies are available on the UAB commencement website. There is no limit on the number of guests who can attend the ceremonies, and parking is free. All participating students are asked to wear flat shoes. Watch the UAB livestream of the ceremonies on Facebook and YouTube. Use the hashtag #UABClassof2023.
For spring 2023, the UAB Graduate School will confer the university’s highest degrees on 131 students from 26 states and 12countries, representing 27 disciplines. All graduate students — master’s, educational specialist and doctoral — will participate in Friday’s combined commencement and doctoral hooding ceremony.
The mace will be carried during the ceremonies by Greg Pence, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Philosophy and director of UAB’s Early Medical School Acceptance Program. Pence is widely recognized as a founder of the field of bioethics. An outstanding teacher and mentor, Pence is founding coach of the UAB Bioethics Bowl team that has won three national championships. He has received three of UAB’s top awards for exceptional achievement in teaching and scholarship: the 2008 President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the 1994 Ellen Gregg Ingalls/UAB National Alumni Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Teaching, and the 2019 Caroline P. and Charles W. Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction.
This year, the Friday ceremony will begin earlier in the day. Due to that earlier time, 13th Street South between Sixth Avenue and University Boulevard will be closed to through traffic from 11 a.m. Friday, April 28, through the end of ceremonies Saturday.