December, from the office that runs it

UWF’s commencement office states the fall round in full: “Saturday, December 12, 2026 at the Pensacola Bay Center”, with 10 a.m. for undergraduates and 2 p.m. for graduate degrees.

12 December 2026 is a Saturday. The registrar’s academic dates page carries the same day as “Fall Commencement Ceremony”. Two sources, one date, sittings and venue named. For a December family there is nothing left to wait for.

Spring, from a calendar that says it may change

The spring date comes from a different kind of page. The registrar’s academic dates and deadlines table has a row for May 1, 2027 that reads, in one line, last day of class, final exams end, and Spring Commencement Ceremony. 1 May 2027 is a Saturday.

The same page states that the academic calendar is subject to change. The commencement office, which publishes the round in full for December, has published nothing for spring.

This page records 1 May 2027 as UWF’s stated date. It also treats the registrar’s flag as what it is: the university telling you the date is not final. For lodging that means cancellable rates only, which in a city with Pensacola’s inventory costs nothing to follow.

Downtown, not the campus

Both rounds, and every recent one, are at the Pensacola Bay Center, 201 East Gregory Street, downtown. The UWF campus is twelve miles north. A family that books near the university has booked twenty minutes from the ceremony; the where to stay page is anchored on the arena for that reason, with the 118-room Courtyard three minutes away.

The shape of the day

December is two sittings, morning and early afternoon, and the Friday night covers it.

Spring 2026 ran three: 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. for the undergraduate colleges, and 5:30 p.m. for master’s, specialist and doctoral degrees. If 2027 repeats that shape, a graduate-degree family is finishing in the early evening and staying the Saturday. Spring sittings are not published; this is pattern, offered as such.

Not stated, and not filled in

Ticket rules for either round. The spring venue, though every recent round has been at the Bay Center. Parking. UWF’s commencement office page is where those appear as each round approaches, and the cluster’s November review is set to capture them for December.