The big ceremony is downtown, not on campus

Tulane’s campus is Uptown, on St. Charles Avenue. Its main graduation ceremony is not. The Unified Commencement, where the president confers degrees on every graduate of the year, undergraduate, graduate and professional, is held in the Caesars Superdome in the Central Business District, about ten minutes’ drive from campus. Tulane promises an academic procession, a keynote speaker and live jazz, and it runs about ninety minutes. If you are booking dinner afterwards, Tulane suggests allowing another half hour just to get out of the building.

That shapes where to stay. For the Saturday, the useful hotels are the ones around the Superdome, not the ones near campus.

Two ceremonies for most graduates

The Unified Commencement is the university-wide event. Each school also holds its own ceremony, and that is where Tulane says graduates’ names are called one by one as they cross the stage. Last round the school diploma ceremonies were on the Friday, in venues that included the Devlin Fieldhouse on campus and the convention center, and Tulane posts the full list on its commencement schedule page as details are settled. A family travelling for its graduate’s moment needs the school ceremony at least as much as the Saturday.

Only the Superdome needs tickets. Every graduate gets one of their own, and can claim up to twenty for guests. Anyone aged two or older needs their own. Graduates register through Tassel after an email from TUgrad@tulane.edu in April, and can print the tickets or email them to guests; each ticket arrives in a separate email, even if several go to the same address. The school ceremonies are unticketed.

At the Superdome

Guests enter at Gates B and C on the plaza level, and seating is first come, first served. Only graduates, faculty and staff go onto the floor, so agree a meeting point for photographs afterwards. The accessible entrance and drop-off is at Gate A on the ground level, on the Poydras side.

Tulane’s clear bag policy applies to every commencement event: a clear bag up to 12 by 12 by 6 inches, a small clutch up to 4.5 by 6.5, or a one-gallon resealable bag. The banned list is long: signs, flags and banners of any size, noisemakers including drums, food and drink, bottles, stickers and strollers, apart from umbrella strollers that fold under a seat. Umbrellas, on the other hand, are welcome, including the decorated second line umbrellas that graduates carry, and they are checked at the door. It is usually warm and humid in New Orleans in May, so dress for it.

Getting there

Parking at the Superdome is sold in advance for the ceremony days. For events on the Uptown campus, parking is in the Diboll Garage, and a shuttle runs a continuous loop between the Diboll Garage and the Superdome, with the last departures from the Superdome in the evening. A taxi or rideshare can drop off on Poydras Street between LaSalle and Loyola, right outside.

Where to sleep

The Superdome is surrounded by big hotels. The Hyatt Regency, with nearly 1,200 rooms, is next door; the Hyatt House on Poydras Street and the Holiday Inn Downtown Superdome on Loyola Avenue are a short walk; and the Homewood Suites is about half a mile along Poydras. The Warehouse District is four minutes away, the French Quarter six. For the school ceremonies on campus, the Alder Hotel Uptown is under a mile from Tulane, or use the downtown hotel and the shuttle.

We grade the pressure as elevated. The whole university graduates in one weekend, and a graduate can bring twenty guests, so the downtown rooms are in demand even in a city with this many of them. That grade is our judgement from the supply and the scale, not a measured count of free rooms, which we have not taken for New Orleans. Book the Friday and Saturday early, on a cancellable rate.