The ceremony is downtown, and the seats are open

UTSA’s main campus is on the north-west edge of San Antonio, but its commencement ceremonies are held downtown, in the Alamodome. For families, that one fact settles where to stay: near the dome, not near the campus, which is about twenty-five minutes away by road.

No tickets are needed, and guest seating is open. That makes arrival the only lever you have over where you sit. The doors open about two hours before each ceremony, so arriving early is how a family chooses its seats. Each ceremony lasts about two hours and every graduate’s name is called, so settle in; there is no re-entry once you leave the building.

Three ceremonies in one day

The fall round runs as three Alamodome ceremonies on a single day, each for a group of colleges: one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, as listed in the table above. Graduates attend the ceremony for their own college. The evening before, doctoral graduates have their own conferral ceremony on the main campus, in the Recital Hall of the Arts Building; that one is limited to four guests per graduate because the hall is small, though it needs no tickets.

UTSA holds a spring commencement in May as well. It had not published the spring date when we last checked, and we will add it to this page as soon as it does.

Security and what to bring

The Alamodome applies its own safety procedures: no large bags, posters, noisemakers, banners or signs, among other things, and every guest goes through a bag check and a security scan. Rather than bringing flowers from outside, you can buy bouquets and graduation T-shirts at booths inside the dome, or order them in advance through UTSA’s commencement vendor.

After the ceremony, leave the Alamodome to meet your graduate outside.

Where to sleep

The Alamodome sits on the east side of downtown San Antonio, and the hotel choice around it is large. On Bowie Street, the Hampton Inn and the SpringHill Suites face each other about seven-tenths of a mile from the dome, and the Red Roof Inn Plus on East Houston Street is similar; all three are two minutes away by car. The Alamo and the River Walk, with many more hotels, are just beyond, and Southtown and the Pearl are four to six minutes away.

For the 7:30 p.m. ceremony, a downtown room means no late drive afterwards. For the doctoral ceremony on campus, a hotel near the main campus is the closer choice.

We grade the pressure as low. December’s round is three ceremonies on one day, each family attends one, and downtown San Antonio has thousands of rooms. That is our judgement from the schedule and the supply; we have not counted free rooms in San Antonio on ceremony days.