Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) will hold a series of ceremonies to honor its Class of 2023. This year, more than 1,100 undergraduates and nearly 900 graduate students will receive their degrees during separate events. The university will also host a commissioning ceremony for cadets of the Army and Air Force ROTC programs. All events will be held on the WPI Quadrangle, 100 Institute Road, Worcester.
Thursday, May 11
What: Graduate Commencement Exercises
Who: Catherine Ball, a scientific futurist, author, and tech influencer, will deliver the address at
the university’s Graduate Commencement ceremony. Honorary degrees will also be awarded to Gebisa Ejeta, executive director of Purdue University’s Center for Global Food Security and WPI Professor Emeritus David Lucht.
When: 5:00 p.m. Members of the media are asked to arrive by 4:30 p.m.
Friday, May 12
What: ROTC Commissioning Ceremony
Who: The Worcester Consortium of Colleges Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) will
hold a joint ceremony in which cadets in the Army and Air Force programs at Assumption University, Brown University, the College of the Holy Cross, WPI, Worcester State University, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell will be commissioned as officers. The Commissioning Officer is Lieutenant General Douglas A. Sims II, Director for Operations, J-3, The Joint Staff.
When: 1:30 p.m. Members of the media are asked to arrive by 1:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 13
What: Undergraduate Commencement Exercises
Who: Congressman James P. McGovern, who represents Massachusetts’ second congressional
district, will deliver the address at the university’s Undergraduate Commencement ceremony. Honorary degrees will also be awarded to Shankar Balasubramanian, the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Cambridge University, and John T. Mollen, former chair of WPI’s Board of Trustees.
When 10:00 a.m. Members of the media are asked to arrive by 9:30 a.m.
All Commencement events stream live via the WPI website and on YouTube.
Media Credentials and Parking
Members of the media wishing to cover any or all of these events in person must have WPI-issued credentials. To obtain credentials and parking pass, contact:
Colleen Bamford Wamback
WPI Director of Public Relations
508-688-4858
cbwamback@wpi.edu
