Current Students - 2025 Darden Final Exercises

Why?

• We want to honor and celebrate your tremendous accomplishment as a graduate of Darden and provide an opportunity for you and your guests to enjoy a meal together.

What?

• A combined Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, and Executive MBA celebratory graduation picnic named in honor of Professor Emeritus, Sherwood C Frey, Jr.

When?

• Saturday, 17 May 2025, 12:30 - 2:30 PM following the Academic Regalia Ceremony.

Where?

• Fairweather: Under the tents on the Darden Grounds at Duffy Field and all public areas on Darden Grounds.
• Inclement weather: Please review the Inclement or Severe Weather Plan Tab.

Who?

• All graduates and their friends and family attending the Academic Regalia Ceremony are welcome to join.

Hospitality?

• BBQ Picnic Buffet Lunch (including vegan and GF options) will be provided. All cups, plates, napkins and utensils will be 100% compostable.
• Nonalcoholic beverage dispensers with water, tea, and lemonade and compostable cups will be available.
  • In support of Darden’s sustainability goals, we encourage you to bring your own refillable cup/bottle.
• Stationed dessert tables will be available under the tents.
• An atmosphere of celebration with music and kid-friendly entertainers.

How?

• Post Ceremony: Students will be invited to take a group photo on the steps of Saunders Hall, and guests will be invited to lunch following the photo. Please ask your guests to allow time for the photo before proceeding to lunch.
  • Seating is limited under the tents. Guests are also welcome to enjoy lunch in any public space at the school. You may also bring a picnic blanket to enjoy your lunch.

Zero Waste Event!

• This event has been designed to reduce the production of landfill waste.  All components of food packaging, including utensils, napkins, and cups provided by Darden are compostable. Composting stations are located in the school and by the event tents for you to compost your waste (event map coming soon).  We kindly request you not contaminate the composting receptacles with waste from items brought from home or with aluminum or glass containers that can go into recycling bins.  We truly appreciate your assistance in our effort to provide a sustainable environment on Darden Grounds.

Darden Academic Regalia Ceremony  No tickets are required for the Flagler Court Ceremony

•  Please refer to the Inclement or Severe Weather Plan tab for potential changes to location, seating, and tickets.

Full-time MBA Caps and Gowns, Department Ceremony severe weather ticket and Parking Pass will be distributed in mailboxes located in front of the Office of Student Affairs. The distribution date is TBD.

Executive MBA Caps, Gowns, Severe Weather Ceremony Ticket, and Parking Pass will be distributed during LR2.

Part Time MBA Caps and Gowns, Severe Weather Ceremony Ticket, and Parking Pass will be distributed TBA.

Darden Parking Pass Each Graduate is allowed one(1) D10 Garage Parking Pass (D1 lot available for ADA accessible and overflow) for graduation weekend. 

• This pass is good for Saturday and Sunday 
• NO extra Parking Passes are available. 
• If you do not need your Parking Pass consider offering them to one of your peers.
• Shuttle buses will run from Darden to the Lawn on Sunday starting at 7am.

If you are unable to pick up your items please contact [email protected] for arrangements.

Darden Academic Regalia Ceremony(Saturday, May 18): In the case of severe weather, this ceremony will be moved to Sunday in Flager Court following the Lawn Ceremony. 

• Severe Weather on Sunday this ceremony will follow the Lawn Ceremony (held at JPJ in severe weather) and will be held at 1:15pm at The North Grounds Recreation Center (the building to the left of the entry to Darden Grounds). 
  • One (1) physical ticket will be provided to each student. All Darden locations will be available for guests to view the ceremony remotely.

All Darden Sherwood Frey Graduation Picnic(Saturday, May 18): In the case of severe weather the event will continue to be held on Saturday. All activities will be moved indoors.

• Saunders Hall, the Abbott Center and the Classroom Building will have all public areas and classrooms will be available for seating.

Darden Academic Regalia Ceremony

Contact Rachel Dudzik at [email protected], prior to Final Exercises if disability accommodations are needed.

Please note that all busses to The Lawn are ADA accessible. For information related to The Lawn Ceremony and accessibility, please visit the UVA Finals website.

Lawn Ceremony

Should you require disability-related accommodations, please send your request to [email protected] as early as possible, but no later than April 14, 2024, so that they have ample lead time to arrange for the necessary accommodations.

Examples of accommodations may include real-time captioning, ASL-English interpreting services, accessible digital copies of programs, accessible seating, and accessible parking.  Please include the following information in your request:

1. Full Name:
2. Contact Information:
3. Degree Candidate:
   a. Name:
   b. School/Department/Major:
4. Date and Location of the Event:
5.  Accommodation requested:

The ceremonies may be viewed live at Darden in classrooms, in the Abbott Lounge, and online via this page during the event, our YouTube channel or via Zoom meeting. This year, our streams will be closed-captioned (machine-generated) for added accessibility. Captions can be toggled on/off by the viewer in both the YouTube player and Zoom application.

Watch via YouTube

Watch via Zoom

Lawn Ceremony 

Degree candidates will receive 6 tickets to Final Exercises on the Lawn for family and guests. If the event moves to John Paul Jones Arena due to severe weather, candidates will receive 3 tickets. 

To access either location, degree candidates must wear academic regalia and show their Graduation Student ticket or UVA Student ID to access Final Exercises Assembly Areas or the arena.

• To ensure you receive your tickets in May, log in to your athletics ticket account and request the number of tickets you would like to receive (up to 6 total guest tickets).
  • You must use your @virginia.edu email address to access your tickets. Alias or a school specific email address will not grant you access to tickets.
  • Examples: @darden.virginia.edu / @comm.virginia.edu 

Tickets will be distributed digitally to graduates via the Virginia Athletics ticketing system (Paciolan) by May 6th. Once distributed graduates can transfer tickets to their guest(s).

• Your guest(s) must have a UVA athletics ticketing account to receive transferred tickets.
• Make sure guests download tickets to their digital wallet before arriving on the Lawn. Cellular data and Wi-Fi are extremely unreliable once you reach the lawn, so downloading tickets onsite will be difficult. 

Requesting tickets early ensures timely delivery and helps resolve any issues before the second week of May.

Graduates who need more than the allotted 6 tickets can enter the ticket lottery for a chance to receive up to 2 additional tickets, based on availability.

• To participate, simply log in to your athletics ticketing account. The option to request lottery tickets will appear right below where you selected your 6 guests tickets.  

Only Guests with UVA Lawn Ceremony tickets will be permitted on The Lawn.

• Guests without tickets will be directed to remote viewing sites (please see the Remote Viewing tab).
• Please inform guests of UVA's Clear Bag Policy

* Please refer to the Inclement or Severe Weather Plan tab for potential changes to location, seating, and tickets.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Guest tickets for Final Exercises at the University of Virginia have NO cash value.  
• The selling or bartering of Final Exercise tickets is strictly prohibited and is considered an honor offense.  
• If you are discovered to be selling or bartering Final Exercises tickets:  
  • May lead to loss of guest ticket access.
  • Your guest ticket(s) being voided.
  • Referral to the Honor Committee.

Programs

• UVA Programs will be available at the Lawn,
• Darden Programs will be available before the ceremony begins. 

Photos

• A photographer will photograph each graduate during the ceremony and will take a Class of 2024 photo in front of Saunders Hall afterward.
• Information on ordering prints will be emailed by Grad Images to Graduates once the photos are ready

More information coming soon!