Two facts that shape the weekend

Most families planning a Gallaudet commencement start with the date, which Gallaudet’s academic calendar has already fixed (it is in the table above). Two other facts matter more to how the trip is planned.

The first is the ticket. Gallaudet says plainly that tickets are required to attend in person and that they come by invitation of a graduating student. There is no public ticket office and no general admission. Before anyone books a flight, the graduate needs to know how many guests they can invite and who is on the list.

The second is the hotel. Gallaudet has a full hotel on its own campus, the Kellogg Conference Hotel, a short walk from the ceremony. Few universities can offer that, and it has 120 rooms, so it is the first place families look and the first to fill.

One Friday, two ceremonies in the Field House

Gallaudet keeps commencement on campus. Last round there were two ceremonies on the same Friday, both in the University Field House: the graduate ceremony from nine to eleven in the morning, and the undergraduate ceremony from two to four in the afternoon. A family with a graduate in each would have had a full day in one building with a long lunch in between.

The coming ceremony falls on a Friday again, in mid-May. The times and the order of the two ceremonies are not published yet; they will appear on Gallaudet’s commencement page.

Speakers are a long tradition here. Gallaudet has invited a keynote speaker to address its graduates since the nineteenth century, and for more than three decades it has also chosen students to speak to their own class. Last round the two keynotes went to Yohei Sasakawa for the graduate ceremony and the filmmaker Nyle DiMarco, a Gallaudet graduate, for the undergraduate one.

When the ticket list is short

Because seats come only through the graduates, relatives beyond the invitation list should plan to watch remotely. Last round both ceremonies were livestreamed on YouTube, and the recordings of earlier commencements stay on Gallaudet’s site.

For families travelling from far away, that changes the calculation. If only a few seats come through your graduate, it may make sense for one or two people to travel and for the wider family to gather around the livestream at home. For questions about tickets, Gallaudet points families to its Commencement Committee at commencement@gallaudet.edu.

One more date in the calendar is worth a look. Gallaudet’s academic calendar closes the residence halls at noon on a Saturday about a week before commencement. A graduate who lives on campus should confirm with Residence Life where they will stay in that final week, and families may find themselves booking for the graduate as well as for themselves.

Staying inside the gates or in NoMa

The Kellogg Conference Hotel Capitol Hill is on the Gallaudet campus at 800 Florida Avenue NE. Gallaudet describes 120 guest rooms and suites with videophones in the rooms, which is not something a downtown chain offers, and the hotel runs a free shuttle to Union Station. It is a working conference hotel open to any guest, not a block held for graduating families, and it has nothing like the capacity to house a graduating class and its guests.

The next ring of hotels is in NoMa, just west of campus, a few minutes away by road:

• the Homewood Suites by Hilton on New York Avenue, about 0.7 road miles from campus, with 155 studio to two-bedroom suites;
• the Washington Marriott Capitol Hill on L Street, 235 rooms;
• the Morrow on M Street, 203 rooms;
• the Hilton Garden Inn US Capitol on First Street, 204 rooms.

Past NoMa, Capitol Hill, the convention-center hotels downtown and the Navy Yard are all within about ten minutes by road with no traffic, and Crystal City across the Potomac adds an airport option. None of these is a scarce market in the way a small college town is. The scarce thing is the campus hotel.

Getting to Florida Avenue

Washington is an easy city to reach without a car. The nearest Metro station, on the Red Line, carries the university’s name: NoMa-Gallaudet U. Union Station, the rail hub for Amtrak and the Red Line, is about a mile and a half from campus, and guests at the Kellogg can use its free shuttle from there. The campus covers 99 acres, so allow time between the gate and the Field House, especially for older relatives.

For anyone driving, check Gallaudet’s visitor pages before the day for where guests may park on campus.