Miami University celebrates the Class of 2023 during the 184th spring commencement ceremony at Yager Stadium on Saturday, May 13, rain or shine. 

The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. and be live-streamed for those unable to attend in person, available through YouTube. 

President Gregory Crawford will preside over the commencement ceremony with Hamilton native Nicole Fleetwood ’94 offering the commencement address.

Fleetwood, a graduate from Miami’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies Western College Program, is now an academic, curator, and author.

The inaugural James Weldon Johnson Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, Fleetwood won a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2021 and recently published the book “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” winner of the National Book Critics Award in Criticism, among other awards. She is also the curator of an art exhibition of the same name, which was listed as “one of the most important art moments of 2020” by The New York Times. 

The ceremony will last approximately 90-120 minutes. Current planning includes open seating (this is not a ticketed event) with no restrictions on the number of guests.

Divisional ceremonies and other graduate recognition programs occur throughout the weekend. More information can be found on the commencement webpage. 

Degree candidates include 133 certificates, 70 associates, 3,869 bachelor’s, 469 master’s, and 14 doctorates, for a total of 4,555. These graduates represent 39 states and Washington, D.C., and an additional 239 are international students.

The top 10 degrees to be conferred as follows: Finance 361, Marketing 296, Psychology 211, Biology 152, Nursing 138, Computer Science 137, Political Science 118, Kinesiology 117, Strategic Communication 110, and Accountancy 108.

A total of 16.4% of students earning bachelor degrees will graduate with cum laude honors, 9.6% magna cum laude, and 6.5% summa cum laude. For associate degrees, 2.9% will graduate cum laude, 1.4% magna cum laude, and 4.3% summa cum laude.

More on Commencement

• VaLanDria Smith-Lash, a Chicago area resident who runs her own Coarse Culture skin care products business and graduates this month, is one of the first tenants to be part of the Lee and Rosemary Fisher Innovation College@Elm.
• Patrick Geshan, a graduating senior from Oxford with a double major in Journalism and Political Science, has started full-time as an announcer for the Dayton Dragons during his final year in college.
• Sydney Ring, a 19-year-old from West Chester, will graduate with a bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from the Regionals thanks to participating in College Credit Plus in high school. She earned high school and college credits at the same time.
• All four of Mary Beth and Andrew Greene’s children went to Miami in consecutive years, from 2005-present. The fourth graduates this month. The Greene family is from Chevy Chase, Maryland.
• Cody Glaser, a first-generation college student, veteran, and married father of three, is set to graduate cum laude with a degree in Small Business Management from Miami Regionals. The Piqua native now lives in Hamilton.
• Graduating senior Dawson Cosgrove served two years as a student member of Miami University Board of Trustees after he initially planned to only stay a year at the university. The Farmer School of Business student already has a job lined up in Chicago with JPMorgan Chase, where he interned.
• Nursing student Brittany Brown’s career path was inspired by family. She’ll graduate from Miami Regionals and start full-time at the end of May with Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital.