Friday 11 December 2026, 4 p.m.

FAMU’s own commencement page now gives Fall 2026 as:

“Friday, December 11 | 4 p.m.”

in the Alfred Lawson Multipurpose Center and Teaching Gymnasium, 1800 Althea Gibson Way, with doors 90 minutes before the ceremony and seating first-come, first-served. A rehearsal is listed for Thursday 10 December at 4 p.m. in the same building, and the page lists shuttle service on the day from 2 to 8 p.m.

Spring 2027 is listed differently, across Friday 30 April and Saturday 1 May, both TBA, with degrees conferred on the Saturday.

A 4 p.m. start, and what it does to your booking

The start time is what determines your first night, and December’s is now published: 4 p.m. on a Friday. A late-afternoon ceremony is the friendly case. A family within a couple of hours’ drive can arrive on Friday morning, be at the doors by about 2:30 p.m. and drive home on Saturday, which is one night rather than two.

The Thursday night is for three groups: anyone whose graduate is at the Thursday 4 p.m. rehearsal, anyone driving more than a few hours, and anyone staying in Valdosta, ninety-five minutes each way, for whom a late-afternoon ceremony still makes the return a night drive. That reading of the schedule is ours, not FAMU’s.

Given that Florida State graduates the same Friday, a refundable rate is still the sensible way to hold a room.

The venue is named for December, not for spring

FAMU names the Alfred Lawson Multipurpose Center and Teaching Gymnasium for Fall 2026. It names no venue for either Spring 2027 day, and this page does not print the Alfred Lawson Center for spring just because December is there. Where FAMU has published something, this page quotes it; where it has not, this page says so.

The same-day collision, on the ground

Florida State’s Fall commencement is the same Friday, with ceremonies at 9:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

Because FSU spreads three ceremonies across the whole day, there is no quiet window. Traffic near both campuses, parking downtown and restaurant availability are all affected from the morning through the evening.

Two practical consequences. Allow noticeably more time than the drive time suggests, particularly coming in from Thomasville or Valdosta on the two-lane approaches. And book dinner in advance, because the graduation dinner is the thing families reliably forget until the ceremony is over and the whole city has had the same idea.

Absent rather than estimated

Spring 2027 start times: TBA for both days.

Spring 2027 venue: not published.

Tickets: we did not read FAMU’s answer on whether tickets are needed, so no guest allocation policy is stated.

Nothing above has been carried forward from an earlier year. Where FAMU has published something, this page quotes it. Where it has not, this page says so and tells you who to ask.

For where to sleep, and what the two-university collision has actually done to the hotel market, see where to stay.