10 things to know about Emory’s 2023 Commencement

May 1, 2023

Emory University will celebrate its Class of 2023 with Commencement ceremonies May 5-8 on the Atlanta and Oxford College campuses.

As the time draws near, here are 10 things you need to know about the celebrations.

1. Anthony Ray Hinton is this year’s Commencement speaker and one of three honorary degree recipients.

Activist, writer and justice advocate Anthony Ray Hinton will deliver the keynote address at the Emory University Commencement ceremony on Monday, May 8.

On Dec. 17, 1986, Hinton entered Death Row in Alabama for crimes he did not commit. He spent the next 30 years in custody until the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) secured his freedom. Hinton now serves as an EJI community educator and is a tireless and powerful advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. He also works with LifeLines, which supports prisoners on Death Row through letter writing, and is the author of the New York Times 2018 bestselling book “The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row.”

Emory will confer honorary degrees on three individuals at the Commencement ceremony: Hinton and philanthropists and health care advocates James Cox Kennedy and Sarah Kenan Kennedy.

Jim Kennedy is chairman emeritus of Cox Enterprises and chairman of the James M. Cox Foundation. The foundation supports conservation and the environment, early childhood education, and empowering families and individuals for success and health. He launched Cox Conserves, a sustainability program at Cox that seeks to send zero waste to landfills by 2024 and become carbon- and water-neutral by 2034.

Sarah Kennedy, one of Atlanta’s most active, compassionate and effective civic leaders, serves on the Executive Advisory Council of the Emory Brain Health Center — a body whose members serve as ambassadors locally and nationally, contributing to the mission of the center through philanthropy, networking and advocacy.

Through personal and foundation giving, the Kennedys have made landmark investments in patient care, brain health and cancer. Their contributions in the areas of sustainability, early childhood education, health care and the arts have helped improve the quality of life in our community.

2. Graduates and their guests need tickets to attend in person.

The main Emory University ceremony on Monday, May 8, is on the Emory Quadrangle at 8:30 a.m. Graduating students and their guests are invited to attend in person and enjoy the pomp and circumstance of Emory’s processional march featuring full academic regalia, Anthony Ray Hinton’s keynote address, honorary degree presentations, President Gregory L. Fenves’ address to the graduating class and the formal conferral of all student degrees earned. Student representative Nicole Felix-Tovar will also speak. Registration and tickets are required.

3. You don’t have to be a graduate to get involved or watch the ceremony.

Members of the Emory community who are not graduating students or their guests can also join the celebration. Faculty can participate in the processional (learn about faculty participation). Staff members can fill a variety of volunteer roles, including helping with the annual Chair Rodeo on May 3 or assisting with guest relations on May 8. Learn more and register to help.

You can also watch online or from other areas on campus. The May 8 ceremony will be livestreamed on the Emory Commencement 2023 website and available for viewing on Emory Television 28.1 (QAM). A simulcast will be shown in Rooms 206, 207 and 208 of White Hall and other locations on campus. Soon after Commencement, the live event video will be available for archival viewing.

4. Attendees must follow safety protocols.

All graduates, guests and others at the Commencement ceremonies should follow any safety protocols that are in place. Masks are optional in most spaces on Emory’s campuses and on Emory shuttles and buses.

In the event of potentially dangerous weather, check the university’s website, or call the dangerous weather hotline (404-727-1234) after 7 p.m. Sunday for the status of Commencement activities scheduled for Monday. Check the Commencement website for details about plans in case of dangerous weather.

5. Numerous celebrations will occur before Commencement.

From Class Day Crossover to Baccalaureate to school diploma ceremonies, the Class of 2023 is being honored with a full slate of events surrounding Commencement. The celebration began with an open house for graduating students at the home of President Gregory L. Fenves on April 23 and continues through May 8.

Special Belonging and Community Justice graduation festivities honor graduating Black students (May 6), Latinx students (May 6), Asian Pacific Islander Desi/American graduates (May 7) and students who are the first in their families to graduate from college (May 7); ceremonies honoring women and LGBTQ students have already been held. Learn about those ceremonies here.

Class Day Crossover, a student-organized event for those receiving undergraduate degrees, will be Thursday, May 4, at 6 p.m. The evening will include a student reception, inspiring remarks from Kal Penn — actor, writer, producer and former associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement — and Emory leaders, and the presentation of senior awards (including the Boisfeuillet Jones Medals). The Candlelight Crossover tradition continues when graduating undergraduate students will cross as a group from the Emory Student Center to McDonough Field for a party in their honor.

Emory alumni, faculty, staff and trustees also are invited to a special pre-Crossover Reception and to cheer on the graduates during the Candlelight Crossover. This group will then join the party on McDonough Field for a final Coke toast to the graduates.

The Class of 2023 Multifaith Baccalaureate Ceremony will be Friday, May 5, at 4:30 p.m. in Cannon Chapel. The program will celebrate the academic and personal journeys of the graduating senior class and send the class into the world with music, prayers, inspiring reflections and blessings. The Oxford College Baccalaureate Ceremony will be at Old Church on Friday, May 5, at 5 p.m.

View the Commencement events schedule.

6. Honors will extend beyond the graduates.

Commencement will pay tribute to several individuals and groups in addition to the graduates.

The Exemplary Teacher of the Year Award and the Thomas Jefferson Award, which honor faculty or staff who have significantly enriched the intellectual and civic life of the Emory community, will be presented during the May 8 Emory University Commencement ceremony. Other honors presented to faculty and staff during Commencement events include:

Members of the Society of Corpus Cordis Aureum, a group of alumni celebrating 50 or more years since their graduation, will also be honored at the Oxford and Atlanta ceremonies. You can recognize them in their distinctive gold Commencement robes.

7. Be prepared for special parking and transportation situations.

Expect heavy traffic on the Atlanta campus Friday, May 5, and Monday, May 8. Staff who are not involved in Commencement are encouraged to work remotely on those days, if possible. University parking deck gates will be open for Commencement guests at no charge from Friday, May 5, through Monday, May 8. Visitor parking fees will still apply in the Lowergate East and Lowergate West decks since they support Emory University Hospital and the Emory Clinic patients and visitors.

A modified shuttle schedule will be in place Monday, May 8. Check the Transportation and Parking Services website for specific route information. You can also track Commencement shuttles in real time on the Transloc Rider website or by downloading the Transloc Rider app.

8. Services for those needing hearing or mobility assistance will be offered.

Live captioning will be available for the university ceremony on the Quad on May 8. A passenger drop-off area is located on Dowman Drive near the Administration Building, closest to the accessible seating area of the Quadrangle. Emory University does not provide wheelchair rental services, but several vendors can help with rental arrangements. Visit the Emory Commencement “Planning Your Visit” page and click on “Prior to the Event” for details.

9. Share your memories with the graduating class.

Congratulate Class of 2023 graduates or share memories of your time together by leaving a message on the virtual Memory Wall. Messages and photos can be uploaded for specific students or schools; you can also discover memories that others have shared by searching via student or school.

10. Join the celebration with #Emory2023.

Use the #Emory2023 hashtag to join the Commencement celebration on social media posts. You might even see your post shared on the university’s social media accounts.

Emory University 2023 Commencement schedule

Friday, May 5

James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies: 2 p.m.
School of Medicine, Doctor of Physical Therapy: 2:30 p.m.
School of Medicine, Doctor of Medicine: 4 p.m.
Goizueta Business School, Full-time, Executive and Evening MAF, MSBA and MBA: 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 6

Candler School of Theology: 9 a.m.
Rollins School of Public Health: 10 a.m.
Oxford College: 10 a.m.
School of Medicine, Genetic Counseling Training Program: 11 a.m.

Sunday, May 7

School of Law: 11 a.m.

Monday, May 8

Emory University Commencement: 8:30 a.m.
Emory College of Arts and Sciences: 10:15 a.m.
Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing: 11 a.m.
Goizueta Business School, BBA: 11 a.m.
School of Medicine, Medical Imaging Program: 12:30 p.m.

Recent News

By downloading Emory news media, you agree to the following terms of use:

Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License

By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined below), You accept and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License ("Public License"). To the extent this Public License may be interpreted as a contract, You are granted the Licensed Rights in consideration of Your acceptance of these terms and conditions, and the Licensor grants You such rights in consideration of benefits the Licensor receives from making the Licensed Material available under these terms and conditions.

Section 1 – Definitions.

Adapted Material means material subject to Copyright and Similar Rights that is derived from or based upon the Licensed Material and in which the Licensed Material is translated, altered, arranged, transformed, or otherwise modified in a manner requiring permission under the Copyright and Similar Rights held by the Licensor. For purposes of this Public License, where the Licensed Material is a musical work, performance, or sound recording, Adapted Material is always produced where the Licensed Material is synched in timed relation with a moving image.
Copyright and Similar Rights means copyright and/or similar rights closely related to copyright including, without limitation, performance, broadcast, sound recording, and Sui Generis Database Rights, without regard to how the rights are labeled or categorized. For purposes of this Public License, the rights specified in Section 2(b)(1)-(2) are not Copyright and Similar Rights.
Effective Technological Measures means those measures that, in the absence of proper authority, may not be circumvented under laws fulfilling obligations under Article 11 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty adopted on December 20, 1996, and/or similar international agreements.
Exceptions and Limitations means fair use, fair dealing, and/or any other exception or limitation to Copyright and Similar Rights that applies to Your use of the Licensed Material.
Licensed Material means the artistic or literary work, database, or other material to which the Licensor applied this Public License.
Licensed Rights means the rights granted to You subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, which are limited to all Copyright and Similar Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material and that the Licensor has authority to license.
Licensor means the individual(s) or entity(ies) granting rights under this Public License.
Share means to provide material to the public by any means or process that requires permission under the Licensed Rights, such as reproduction, public display, public performance, distribution, dissemination, communication, or importation, and to make material available to the public including in ways that members of the public may access the material from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
Sui Generis Database Rights means rights other than copyright resulting from Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases, as amended and/or succeeded, as well as other essentially equivalent rights anywhere in the world.
You means the individual or entity exercising the Licensed Rights under this Public License. Your has a corresponding meaning.

Section 2 – Scope.

License grant.
1. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material to:
  1. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part; and
  2. produce and reproduce, but not Share, Adapted Material.
2. Exceptions and Limitations. For the avoidance of doubt, where Exceptions and Limitations apply to Your use, this Public License does not apply, and You do not need to comply with its terms and conditions.
3. Term. The term of this Public License is specified in Section 6(a).
4. Media and formats; technical modifications allowed. The Licensor authorizes You to exercise the Licensed Rights in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter created, and to make technical modifications necessary to do so. The Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any right or authority to forbid You from making technical modifications necessary to exercise the Licensed Rights, including technical modifications necessary to circumvent Effective Technological Measures. For purposes of this Public License, simply making modifications authorized by this Section 2(a)(4) never produces Adapted Material.
5. Downstream recipients.
  1. Offer from the Licensor – Licensed Material. Every recipient of the Licensed Material automatically receives an offer from the Licensor to exercise the Licensed Rights under the terms and conditions of this Public License.
  2. No downstream restrictions. You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any recipient of the Licensed Material.
6. No endorsement. Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be construed as permission to assert or imply that You are, or that Your use of the Licensed Material is, connected with, or sponsored, endorsed, or granted official status by, the Licensor or others designated to receive attribution as provided in Section 3(a)(1)(A)(i).
Other rights.
1. Moral rights, such as the right of integrity, are not licensed under this Public License, nor are publicity, privacy, and/or other similar personality rights; however, to the extent possible, the Licensor waives and/or agrees not to assert any such rights held by the Licensor to the limited extent necessary to allow You to exercise the Licensed Rights, but not otherwise.
2. Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License.
3. To the extent possible, the Licensor waives any right to collect royalties from You for the exercise of the Licensed Rights, whether directly or through a collecting society under any voluntary or waivable statutory or compulsory licensing scheme. In all other cases the Licensor expressly reserves any right to collect such royalties.

Section 3 – License Conditions.

Your exercise of the Licensed Rights is expressly made subject to the following conditions.

Attribution.
1. If You Share the Licensed Material, You must:
  1. retain the following if it is supplied by the Licensor with the Licensed Material:
    1. identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution, in any reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if designated);
    2. a copyright notice;
    3. a notice that refers to this Public License;
    4. a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties;
    5. a URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable;
  2. indicate if You modified the Licensed Material and retain an indication of any previous modifications; and
  3. indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to, this Public License.
  For the avoidance of doubt, You do not have permission under this Public License to Share Adapted Material.
2. You may satisfy the conditions in Section 3(a)(1) in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context in which You Share the Licensed Material. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy the conditions by providing a URI or hyperlink to a resource that includes the required information.
3. If requested by the Licensor, You must remove any of the information required by Section 3(a)(1)(A) to the extent reasonably practicable.

Section 4 – Sui Generis Database Rights.

Where the Licensed Rights include Sui Generis Database Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material:

for the avoidance of doubt, Section 2(a)(1) grants You the right to extract, reuse, reproduce, and Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database, provided You do not Share Adapted Material;
if You include all or a substantial portion of the database contents in a database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights, then the database in which You have Sui Generis Database Rights (but not its individual contents) is Adapted Material; and
You must comply with the conditions in Section 3(a) if You Share all or a substantial portion of the contents of the database.

For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 4 supplements and does not replace Your obligations under this Public License where the Licensed Rights include other Copyright and Similar Rights.

Section 5 – Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability.

Unless otherwise separately undertaken by the Licensor, to the extent possible, the Licensor offers the Licensed Material as-is and as-available, and makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the Licensed Material, whether express, implied, statutory, or other. This includes, without limitation, warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, absence of latent or other defects, accuracy, or the presence or absence of errors, whether or not known or discoverable. Where disclaimers of warranties are not allowed in full or in part, this disclaimer may not apply to You.
To the extent possible, in no event will the Licensor be liable to You on any legal theory (including, without limitation, negligence) or otherwise for any direct, special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, exemplary, or other losses, costs, expenses, or damages arising out of this Public License or use of the Licensed Material, even if the Licensor has been advised of the possibility of such losses, costs, expenses, or damages. Where a limitation of liability is not allowed in full or in part, this limitation may not apply to You.

The disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability provided above shall be interpreted in a manner that, to the extent possible, most closely approximates an absolute disclaimer and waiver of all liability.

Section 6 – Term and Termination.

This Public License applies for the term of the Copyright and Similar Rights licensed here. However, if You fail to comply with this Public License, then Your rights under this Public License terminate automatically.
Where Your right to use the Licensed Material has terminated under Section 6(a), it reinstates:
1. automatically as of the date the violation is cured, provided it is cured within 30 days of Your discovery of the violation; or
2. upon express reinstatement by the Licensor.
For the avoidance of doubt, this Section 6(b) does not affect any right the Licensor may have to seek remedies for Your violations of this Public License.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Licensor may also offer the Licensed Material under separate terms or conditions or stop distributing the Licensed Material at any time; however, doing so will not terminate this Public License.
Sections 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8 survive termination of this Public License.

Section 7 – Other Terms and Conditions.

The Licensor shall not be bound by any additional or different terms or conditions communicated by You unless expressly agreed.
Any arrangements, understandings, or agreements regarding the Licensed Material not stated herein are separate from and independent of the terms and conditions of this Public License.

Section 8 – Interpretation.

For the avoidance of doubt, this Public License does not, and shall not be interpreted to, reduce, limit, restrict, or impose conditions on any use of the Licensed Material that could lawfully be made without permission under this Public License.
To the extent possible, if any provision of this Public License is deemed unenforceable, it shall be automatically reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable. If the provision cannot be reformed, it shall be severed from this Public License without affecting the enforceability of the remaining terms and conditions.
No term or condition of this Public License will be waived and no failure to comply consented to unless expressly agreed to by the Licensor.
Nothing in this Public License constitutes or may be interpreted as a limitation upon, or waiver of, any privileges and immunities that apply to the Licensor or You, including from the legal processes of any jurisdiction or authority.

Creative Commons is not a party to its public licenses. Notwithstanding, Creative Commons may elect to apply one of its public licenses to material it publishes and in those instances will be considered the “Licensor.” The text of the Creative Commons public licenses is dedicated to the public domain under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. Except for the limited purpose of indicating that material is shared under a Creative Commons public license or as otherwise permitted by the Creative Commons policies published at creativecommons.org/policies, Creative Commons does not authorize the use of the trademark “Creative Commons” or any other trademark or logo of Creative Commons without its prior written consent including, without limitation, in connection with any unauthorized modifications to any of its public licenses or any other arrangements, understandings, or agreements concerning use of licensed material. For the avoidance of doubt, this paragraph does not form part of the public licenses.