Everyone graduates in the same four days

SDSU has no winter ceremony. It holds commencement once a year, at the end of the spring term, and every graduate of the year walks in it: those who finished the previous fall, and those finishing in spring or summer. The whole year’s families arrive in the same four days in May.

Inside those four days there are several ceremonies, organised by college. SDSU has fixed the window, shown in the table above, and publishes which college is on which day, with start times, later in the fall semester. Last round every ceremony was in Viejas Arena on campus, and some filled all 12,000 of its seats.

Tickets: free, limited, and from the age of one

Guest tickets cost nothing, but they are rationed. A graduate who applied to graduate by the filing deadline registers separately to attend the ceremony, online, and registering is what releases their allocation of digital guest tickets. The two steps are easy to confuse. Applying gets the degree checked; registering gets the family in.

Count every child over one. SDSU’s rule is that all guests aged one and older need their own ticket; a baby under twelve months can come without one, on an adult’s lap. Strollers are not allowed in the arena at all, and a baby car seat has to occupy a ticketed seat, so it costs a ticket too.

The arena is a clear-bag venue: a clear plastic or vinyl bag no bigger than 12 by 6 by 12 inches, or a one-gallon clear freezer bag, plus a small clutch or wallet. SDSU also bars graduates from bringing banners, posters, signs or flags. Printed programmes are not handed out; the programme is digital, with a QR code shown in the arena.

Parking, the hill and the traffic

On ceremony days the campus roads are congested. SDSU’s advice last round was to arrive at least an hour before the ceremony, and to allow at least twenty minutes to reach the arena from any parking east of College Avenue.

Parking was $5 if paid online by 11:59 p.m. the night before, and $10 on the day. It covered any non-reserved space in any lot or structure, and SDSU says the money pays for traffic control. SDSU’s driving directions lead to Parking Structure 12, reached from I-8 via College Avenue and Canyon Crest Drive, and to Parking Structure 7 on 55th Street. Both have a seven-foot clearance; larger vehicles go to Parking Structure 15 or Lot 2B. The residential streets around campus are permit-only, and enforced.

The walk from the east side of campus to the arena is ten to fifteen minutes uphill. A limited courtesy shuttle runs from the Calpulli Center on Hardy Avenue, starting an hour before each ceremony, every fifteen to twenty minutes; SDSU asks that it be kept for people who cannot manage the climb. There is an accessible drop-off on 55th Street outside the arena.

The simplest way in avoids the car altogether. The Green Line trolley has a station on campus, and ride-share services have their own pick-up and drop-off points.

Where to sleep

The map is deceptive here. The Days Inn and the Rodeway Inn on Adobe Falls Road are under a mile from campus in a straight line, but they sit north of Interstate 8, and the drive round to the arena is more than three miles. The Howard Johnson on El Cajon Boulevard is the nearest by road, about five minutes, and all three are small, with between fifty and a hundred rooms each.

The real supply is ten minutes west in Mission Valley, a long corridor of hotels beside I-8, including the 353-room Marriott, with Hotel Circle at its far end. La Mesa, to the east, is closer still, with the Holiday Inn on Parkway Drive about eight minutes from the arena. Downtown, Old Town and the airport hotels are all under twenty minutes with no traffic.

We grade the pressure as elevated. The whole year’s graduating families come in four days, some ceremonies fill the arena, and the nearest rooms are few. That is a judgement from the supply and the schedule; we have not counted free rooms for Commencement in San Diego. Hold a refundable rate across the four days now, and trim it when your graduate’s ceremony is published.