Western Washington University will graduate about 790 students Saturday in Fall Commencement ceremony

BELLINGHAM – Western Washington University Alumnus Ziad Youssef, an attorney and entrepreneur, will address WWU graduates and their families at the fall commencement ceremony Saturday, Dec. 14 at 9:45 a.m. in Carver Gymnasium.

About 750 undergraduate and 40 master’s students are expected to graduate from Western fall quarter. There will be one ceremony for all graduates and tickets are required to attend the ceremony in Carver Gymnasium. Overflow seating will be available on campus for guests without tickets.

Youssef, the main speaker, graduated from Western in 1993 with a degree in accounting. He is an attorney and the founder of mytrafficman.net and the Legal Care Center of Whatcom County, which is home to his law practice, a paralegal training academy, and his legal software and marketing divisions. Youssef serves as vice chair of the board of directors of LAW Advocates, which provides free legal assistance to low-income residents of Whatcom County, and taught accounting and business law at Whatcom Community College for 17 years.

Also speaking at the ceremony will be Robyn Sabarre Caylor of Oak Harbor, who is completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology. Caylor received the Multicultural Achievement Program Scholarship and the Sandberg Family Scholarship, helped lead the Anthropology Department’s efforts to become more inclusive and welcoming to under-represented students, and worked in the WWU Medical Anthropology Lab. After graduation, Caylor will attend graduate school at Northwestern University in mental health counseling.

Doors to Carver open at 9 a.m., 45 minutes before the ceremony, and all guests should be seated five minutes before the scheduled start.

Overflow seating will be available near Carver in Western’s Arntzen Hall, Room 100 where the ceremony will be shown on a theater-style screen. The ceremony will also be streamed live at https://video.ibm.com/channel/wwu-live-events1.

Following the ceremony, graduates will have the opportunity to follow WWU tradition and deposit their Western identification cards in a box that is later cemented into Memory Walk in front of Old Main.

Guest parking is free on Commencement day and available in most lots. Visitors must observe regulations for accessible and individually reserved spaces. Visitors are also advised to arrive early to avoid traffic congestion and to allow for travel time between the parking lots and Carver.

Shuttle bus service will be available from the 12A parking lot off South College Drive from 8 a.m. to noon or until there is no demand. The shuttle buses will make two stops: one at Carver and one at Arntzen Hall for additional viewing. One of the shuttle buses will be ADA-equipped and will accommodate two wheelchairs. Guests who use wheelchairs may also park in lot 17G and 11G, which will be reserved for accessible parking.

Parking attendants will be available to assist guests with special parking needs.

For more information or for disability accommodations contact the Registrar’s Office, commencement@wwu.edu.