The University is starting preparations for the school-wide commencement ceremony and expects… The University is starting preparations for the school-wide commencement ceremony and expects send out invitations in the mail this week for students to attend the Graduation Central.

Associate Director of Special Events Jason Morrill said Graduation Central, sponsored by the Pitt Alumni Association in conjunction with The Book Center and the Office of Special Events, will take place between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. April 13 and April 14 in the Connolly Ballroom in Alumni Hall. The event will help students prepare for their commencement.

“It’s a fair for students who want to sign up for commencement. Students will be able to buy their cap and gown, a class ring, and there will be signups for the Alumni Association,” Morrill said.

Students will also receive instructions regarding the ceremony.

“There will be packets for students and their family that will help them with everything from where to park, to what time the doors open and where they should report to within the Petersen,” Morrill said.

Morrill said around 3,000 students attend Graduation Central, which is not mandatory but strongly advised. Students who miss Graduation Central will still be able to register and buy their regalia at the Book Center, he said.

The commencement ceremony, arranged by the Office of Special Events, will take place in the Petersen Events Center at 2 p.m. May 2. The ceremony is open to any student who graduates in the 2009-2010 school year who has registered to graduate with her adviser or the dean’s office of her school.

According to the Registrar’s website, schools have students register to graduate prior to the spring semester and the January deadline through the Registrar’s office.

Most students have said that they have found out through e-mails, advisers or word of mouth. Still, some others didn’t realize they had to register until later.

“I saw something [about registering to graduate] in the window, so I signed up. I was a week late and had to pay 15 bucks,” Jeff Tabaka, an undergraduate in the College of Business Administration, said.

Graduate-recognition events are hosted by a number of Pitt schools and colleges, according to the University’s commencement website. Morrill said the date of each individual school’s ceremony might vary from before the school-wide ceremony to weeks afterwards.

Individual dates will soon be posted on the school’s commencement website at www.pitt.edu/commencement/ceremony/schools.htm, Morrill said.

Since much of the information on different ceremonies is still forthcoming, some students are still deciding which ceremonies they want to attend.

“I already got separate info about the biology one,” Anthony Sulkowski said. “I’ll probably go to both. Might as well.”

Others, such as senior Carl Fenderson, who is graduating from the School of Psychology, are tentatively making plans based on stories from other people that have attended commencement ceremonies before.

“I’m not going to the main one. I’ll probably just go to the ‘psych’ one,” Fenderson said. “I had friends that graduated last year and went to the main one. They all said it was too long and sucked.”