Alamo Colleges District wants to offer two graduation ceremonies per year — one in the fall and one in the summer — in hopes of making the milestone event more accessible to students and increasing participation.
San Antonio College and Northwest Vista College held its first-ever fall commencement ceremonies in December, joining St. Philip’s College, which until recently was the only one of the five colleges holding two commencements a year.
“[We were] looking at ensuring that we honor students who graduated in the fall, for them to be able to celebrate with their families,” said Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Mike Flores. “And in particular one of the things that we looked at was the fall graduates and the participation rate the following spring six months later.”
St. Philip’s College has held a fall semester graduation since at least 2022, and it joined Northwest Vista in graduating its first ever recipients of bachelor’s degrees last fall.
Together the five colleges — San Antonio, Northwest Vista, Northeast Lakeview, St. Philip’s, and Palo Alto — serve nearly 90,000 students in the San Antonio region. And while enrollment continues to increase, so have the number of graduating students making for longer graduation ceremonies in the spring.
Francisco Solis, president of San Antonio College, said that participation of fall graduates needed improvement. Last spring, the college had about 300 fall graduates who participated in the May ceremony. But this number fell far short of the total number of students who qualified to participate in the spring graduation ceremony.
This fall, nearly 630 students signed up to participate in the December graduation ceremony and picked up their cap and gowns. On graduation day about 550 students ended up participating. But even after some losses, the increase from previous years is a hopeful indicator to his team, Solis said.
“Especially since so many of our students are first generation, and for many of their families, they are the first to go to college. So we really wanted to create a celebration for them,” Solis said.
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Many things could get in the way of attending a ceremony six months after completion, he said, including new jobs, moves out of the city, and even the size of the graduating class. So holding two ceremonies per year could make the event more accessible.
“The May commencement typically has about 1,300 students and the ceremony goes on for almost three hours,” Solis said. “And literally some of our students were getting the diploma and walking straight off the stage to [leave].”
All three fall commencement ceremonies were held at the Freeman Coliseum, located at 3201 Houston St. in the city’s East Side on consecutive days between Dec. 9 and 11.
With two colleges left to add to this two-graduation ceremony model — Northeast Lakeview and Palo Alto — Flores said he hopes 2026 could be the year all five colleges celebrate both graduating classes individually.
Despite adding one more major event to their list, Solis said the efforts are more than worth it if more students get to cross the stage to receive their degrees.
“I think for students graduation is a way to connect to that next step, whether that means entering the workforce or transferring,” Solis said. “And I think that sets them up though for future commencements. For future milestones.”
The San Antonio Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
