The seat-saving rule, and why it shapes your morning

Kennesaw State’s guest seating is general admission, and KSU lets families save seats. The catch is the deadline: seat saving is allowed only until fifteen minutes before the ceremony begins. After that, a saved seat is no longer held.

So one early arrival can hold a row, but everyone else still needs to be inside and seated a quarter of an hour before the start. Doors open ninety minutes ahead, which leaves plenty of room. Anyone who arrives after the ceremony has started is held in the atrium until the processional is over, so a late grandparent misses the entrance even with a ticket.

Four tickets, and who needs one

Every guest must show a ticket, apart from children aged three and under. The tickets come through the graduate’s commencement RSVP: answering yes reserves up to four guest tickets. KSU says more may become available to buy later, and graduates will hear about that by email. Plan on four until then.

A week of ceremonies, one college at a time

Commencement at KSU is a run of separate ceremonies in the Convocation Center over several days, each college with its own date and time. The registrar’s calendar fixes the window for each round, and KSU’s commencement office posts the college-by-college schedule before each round, early in October for fall. The fall schedule is up: each ceremony is in the table above with its time and colleges, three a day at most, at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and, on the first day, 7 p.m. One thing does not match. The registrar’s calendar runs the fall window one day longer than the posted schedule, which has no ceremony on the final Friday. Book from your graduate’s posted slot, not from the calendar window. For spring, a cancellable rate across the window is the safe option until the slots are posted. Ceremonies are also livestreamed, with real-time captioning on the screens in the hall and on the stream.

Bags, banned items and parking

KSU runs a clear bag policy for commencement: a clear tote no bigger than 12 by 6 by 12 inches, a clear zip-lock bag up to 11 by 11, or a small clutch or purse up to 6.5 by 4.5. If someone arrives with something bigger, there is a bag check at the venue for $5, with the money going to KSU Cares. Balloons, glassware, musical instruments, artificial noisemakers, non-biodegradable confetti, outside food and drink, and anything over 24 by 18 inches are all banned.

Guests park in the East Deck at 305 Hopkins Drive, off I-75 at exit 271. For anyone with limited mobility, Faculty/Staff Lot B has a golf cart service to the front of the Convocation Center. Sign language interpreting is in Section 105, and wheelchair seating is on the entrance level.

Where to sleep

This is one of the easier campuses for a hotel. Exit 271 on I-75 has a cluster of chain hotels within a mile of the Convocation Center: the Sonesta ES Suites and the Hampton Inn on Busbee Drive, the SpringHill Suites on Town Point Drive and the Embassy Suites on Chastain Road, one to three minutes away by car. Together they hold about five hundred rooms and suites, and there are more extended-stay hotels a little further along the same roads.

Marietta’s square and Woodstock are about ten minutes away, the Battery by the Braves’ ballpark about eighteen, and downtown Atlanta half an hour with clear roads; Hartsfield-Jackson airport is nearer fifty minutes.

We grade the pressure as low. Ceremonies are spread over three days in December and five in May, each family attends one, and the hotels by the exit are many and close. That is a judgement from the schedule and the supply; we have not counted free rooms in Kennesaw on ceremony days.