NAU's two graduation seasons work differently and the December one is much the more concentrated. On Friday 11 December 2026 all colleges participate in a single ceremony at 10 a.m. at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome, so every December graduate and every family is in one place on one morning. Spring 2027 spreads instead across two days, 7 and 8 May, with four sessions: Friday at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and Saturday at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., colleges assigned to each. If your ceremony is in spring, the session assignment is the thing to establish before booking. One practical note for December: Flagstaff sits at roughly 7,000 feet, so a 10 a.m. start can mean a cold and possibly snowy drive in.
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Two seasons, two completely different shapes
NAU graduates twice a year and the two events do not resemble each other.
December 2026 is a single ceremony. NAU’s own commencement page is unambiguous: on Friday 11 December 2026, all colleges participate in one ceremony at 10 a.m. at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome. Every graduate, every family, one morning.
Spring 2027 is four ceremonies across two days: Friday 7 May at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and Saturday 8 May at the same two hours, with colleges assigned to each session.
We re-read the schedule on 7 August 2026 and cross-checked the weekdays: 11 December 2026 is a Friday, and 7 and 8 May 2027 are a Friday and a Saturday.
What the December format does to your planning
A single all-college ceremony is convenient and demanding at the same time.
The convenience is that there is nothing to look up. If your graduate finishes in December, you know the date and the hour without needing a college-by-college schedule, which is more than most campuses in this project offer.
The demand is on the town. Flagstaff already carries year-round tourist traffic as a Grand Canyon gateway, and a single ceremony concentrates the entire December graduating class and its families into one morning rather than spreading them across a weekend. The lodging page in this cluster works through what that means.
Spring needs a lookup that December does not
Four sessions across two days, and only one of them is yours.
A Friday 10 a.m. session and a Saturday 3 p.m. session are, for a travelling family, two entirely different trips with different arrival nights. NAU assigns colleges to sessions and publishes the assignment:
| 10 a.m. | 3 p.m. | |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 7 May | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Health and Human Services; Sanghi Nursing; Sanghi Engineering |
| Sat 8 May | Arts and Letters; Franke Business; NAU-Yuma | Education; Environment, Forestry and Natural Sciences |
That assignment is published, and it is reproduced in full below. Check it before you book, because with Williams 39 minutes out and Winslow 65 there is no easy correction if the night you reserved turns out to be the wrong one.
Seven thousand feet in December
Worth its own section because it is easy to overlook when booking from somewhere warm.
Flagstaff sits at roughly 7,000 feet and has genuine winter weather. A 10 a.m. December ceremony means being on the road early on a morning that can involve cold, ice or snow, and the drive in from Williams or Winslow is a different proposition then than it is in May.
If your ceremony is the December one, that argues for staying in Flagstaff itself rather than saving money an hour away, and for allowing more time than the distance suggests.
What we checked, and what we could not
Both the December ceremony and the spring session structure come from NAU’s own commencement page, read on 7 August 2026, and all three weekdays were cross-checked independently against the calendar. That check exists because a date carried forward from a previous year almost always fails it, and it has caught nine wrong dates on this project.
What we could not establish: doors-open and seating times for either ceremony, ticket limits per graduate, parking arrangements at the Skydome, and the college-by-college assignment for the four spring 2027 sessions. None had been published when we checked, so they are absent here rather than inferred from a previous year.
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Frequently asked questions
When is NAU's next commencement?
Friday 11 December 2026, at 10 a.m. NAU's own commencement page states "All colleges will participate in one ceremony at 10 a.m." We re-read it on 7 August 2026 and checked the weekday: 11 December 2026 is a Friday.
Is December really just one ceremony?
Yes, and that is unusual for a university of NAU's size. Every college graduates together in a single sitting at the Walkup Skydome, which is why the December date concentrates lodging demand into one morning rather than spreading it.
How does spring 2027 differ?
It runs across two days with four sessions: Friday 7 May at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and Saturday 8 May at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., with colleges assigned to each. Establish which session is yours before booking, because the four are spread across two different nights' worth of travel.
Where are the ceremonies held?
The J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome, 1000 South San Francisco Street, on the NAU campus in Flagstaff. It is the university's large indoor venue, which is what makes a single all-college ceremony possible.
Does the altitude matter?
For a December ceremony, yes. Flagstaff sits at roughly 7,000 feet and gets real winter weather. A 10 a.m. start means travelling early on a December morning, and driving in from Williams at 39 minutes or Winslow at 65 is a different proposition in snow.
What time should I arrive?
NAU had not published doors-open or seating times for either ceremony when we checked on 7 August 2026, so this page does not give one. Allow more than you would at sea level in summer.
How we verified this
Last verified:
This page is verified in two stages. Every fact is checked against the primary sources listed above, then the page is reviewed and signed off by our editor, A. Hassan. Corrections and enquiries: hello@graduationstay.com