A ticket on a phone for every guest, however small

Towson’s ticket rule is short and strict, and it is the thing most likely to trip a family up at the door.

Every guest entering SECU Arena needs a ticket, and Towson means every guest: children of all ages, and infants in carriers. A baby asleep on a parent’s chest still needs a ticket of their own.

And the ticket has to be on a phone. Towson accepts mobile tickets only. It will not honour printed, photocopied or forged ones, and a screenshot of a barcode will not scan. If a grandparent does not use a smartphone, the answer is to have someone with them carry their ticket on theirs. There is help inside the entrances at Gates 1 and 2 for anyone having trouble, but it is far better sorted at home.

Two colleges per ceremony

Towson splits commencement by college: three ceremonies in the winter, six in the spring, each pairing two colleges. The winter round is published, and the table above shows which colleges walk when. The spring dates were not out at our last check; Towson opens spring registration in the spring semester, and the page updates when they appear.

Each ceremony runs about an hour and a half to two hours. Graduates come onto the arena floor in alphabetical order, alternating sides, so you cannot predict where yours will sit; the jumbotron is there so that every seat can see them cross the stage. Towson asks for restrained applause so that every name can be heard.

Park at the Union, ride the shuttle

Guests do not park at the arena. The instructions are to park in the Union Parking Garage and take a shuttle to SECU Arena, and the shuttles run continuously from two hours before each ceremony until an hour after it ends. Lots 4, 5 and 6 are reserved for graduates, who receive mailed permits.

Accessible parking is in Lot 8, for anyone with a disability permit, and event staff offer wheelchair transport from the neighbouring Towson Center into the arena. Doors open 90 minutes before each ceremony.

Inside the arena

Everyone goes through magnetometers, and bags are checked against Towson’s clear-bag guidelines. Unopened bottles of water are fine, and so are flowers and gifts, which Towson actively encourages. Balloons and noisemakers are not allowed.

Seating is open. There is no assigned seat anywhere in the building, and most of the lower bowl is available, apart from section 104, the top three rows of the black club seats and the concourse wheelchair area, which are held for guests with disabilities and one companion each. Once the lower level is full, guests are sent upstairs, and the elevators do not go to the upper level. For anyone who struggles with stairs, arriving when the doors open is not a nicety.

Stroller storage is on the concourse, and it is not supervised, so do not leave anything valuable in it. Wheelchairs not needed during the ceremony can be left there too.

Even though the ceremonies are indoors, Towson reserves the right to postpone one if severe weather is forecast, and says it would try to reschedule as close to the original date as possible. For a December ceremony, that is worth keeping in mind when booking non-refundable travel.

Where to sleep

Rooms are not the hard part here. The town is the seat of Baltimore County and has its own small downtown, a mile or so from the arena. A Hampton Inn and a Home2 Suites share a building there, with 143 and 81 rooms, and the Sheraton on Dulaney Valley Road adds 283 more a little further out. Along Loch Raven Boulevard and Cromwell Bridge Road there are three more hotels within about two and a half miles. None publishes a graduation-weekend minimum stay or prepayment rule.

If Towson itself is full, the next places to look are north, up York Road and I-83 to Timonium and Hunt Valley, or south into Baltimore, where the Inner Harbor has the biggest choice about twenty-five minutes away.

The winter ceremonies fall on a Wednesday and a Thursday, which helps. Our low pressure grade comes from that timing and the supply, rather than from a measured count of free rooms, which we have not taken for Towson.