Monday, 14 December 2026

That is the confirmed part, and it is worth stating on its own because the weekday does more work than the date.

ASU’s future dates page reads: “University Commencement will take place December 14, 2026.” After it come 10 May 2027 and 13 December 2027. ASU attaches its own caveat to the table, which this page repeats rather than hides: dates are subject to change without notice.

We checked the weekday rather than trusting the pattern. 14 December 2026 is a Monday. For a family travelling in, that is annual leave and a Sunday-night arrival, not a weekend break, and it is the single most mis-assumable fact about this cluster.

Two ceremonies, and your graduate may not hear their name at either

This is where ASU differs from most universities covered here, and it is standing practice rather than a per-round arrangement.

University Commencement is split into a Graduate ceremony and an Undergraduate ceremony. Both are university-wide events at which the president confers degrees. For December 2026 ASU’s schedule puts them in different buildings on the same Monday: Graduate at 9:00 a.m. in Desert Financial Arena and Undergraduate at 2:00 p.m. in Mountain America Stadium (Frank Kush Field). Tickets are listed as not required for either.

What happens inside them is not the same:

• Doctoral candidates are hooded by a faculty mentor and have their names called as they cross the stage.
• Master’s candidates are announced by college, as a group, not individually. ASU’s instruction is that they should already be wearing their hoods when they enter Desert Financial Arena by the west tunnel.
• Undergraduates are recognised by college and stand as a group.

So for most graduates, the moment a family flies in for, where a name is read out, does not happen at University Commencement at all. It happens at a college or cultural convocation, a smaller separate event that ASU runs precisely for individual recognition.

If that is the ceremony that matters to your family, it is a different event with a different time and possibly a different day, and it is the thing to find out about before booking flights.

Free parking, at both venues

One genuinely good piece of news, and it is published.

Parking is complimentary on a first-come, first-served basis at both commencement venues. At Desert Financial Arena that means Lot 59 and the Packard Drive South Garage. At Mountain America Stadium it means Lots 58 and 59 and the Packard Drive Structure. The Novus Parking Structure serves as overflow for both and is the exception: it requires payment on exit.

Accessible parking is available at convocation venues too, and requires an accessibility placard or plate.

First-come is doing some work in that sentence. Free parking on a Monday, at a university with one of the largest graduating classes in the country, rewards arriving substantially earlier than the drive time suggests.

What is still to come

ASU’s Fall 2026 schedule was updated on 26 August 2026 and is the source for the times above. Its future dates table lists the Spring 2027 schedule as available in February 2027, so the 10 May 2027 start times and venues are not published and are not inferred from December.

Not published: doors or gates times for either ceremony and ceremony length. The same schedule lists the college and cultural convocations, which are separate events on 14 and 15 December and the place where most graduates’ names are read.