Previous Ceremonies

Saturday, May 17, 2025  at 10 a.m.

Salinas Sports Complex, 1034 N. Main Street, Salinas, CA

Twenty-Ninth Annual Commencement

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Cal State Monterey Bay is pleased to offer a free electronic Commencement program viewable on your personal device.

Commemorative Printed Program

For those graduates or attendees desiring a commemorative keepsake program as a remembrance of the day, orders can be placed through our online store. Please note: the link will take you to a third party vendor's website and the last day to place an order is June 17, 2025. Deliveries of the commemorative program will be by mid-July.

Directions to 2025 Commencement locations:

• Salinas Sports Complex/Rodeo Arena
• Rabobank Stadium

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For official Commencement photography, please use the contact information below: 

Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 10 a.m.

Salinas Sports Complex, 1034 N. Main Street, Salinas, CA

Twenty-Eighth Annual Commencement

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Sunday, May 21, 2023

Salinas Sports Complex, 1034 N. Main Street, Salinas, CA

Twenty-Seventh Annual Commencement

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Commencement Ceremony

This event is the culmination of our graduates' academic careers at CSUMB and features the conferral of degrees by President Vanya Quiñones and our commencement keynote address.

Commencement Ceremony 2023
Rodeo Arena | 11:30 a.m.

College Convocations

Convocations are divided by colleges and include the reading of graduate names and the opportunity to walk across the stage and have a photo taken with the Dean of the college. The event also includes other speeches and performances, as organized by the respective college. These three events occur at two times of the day and in two venues in the Salinas Sports Complex. Graduates are encouraged to plan ahead to attend both the Commencement and their college Convocation event to celebrate their accomplishment of earning a CSUMB degree.

Commencement 2023 Additional Information

This year, all Otters will be together again for a university-wide commencement ceremony and festival at the Salinas Sports Complex on Sunday, May 21. This venue change allows all of our students to celebrate as one raft with family, friends, supporters, faculty and staff from all departments and divisions. 

Through 2015, our university honored our graduates in a single joyful ceremony, but our new otter alumni outgrew our facilities in 2016, and CSUMB decided to divide our graduating class by college and offer multiple ceremonies. This year, our Commencement Planning Committee researched many venues in Monterey County, and the Salinas Sports Complex is the only location that is able to accommodate our 2,400 graduates and up to six guests for each. We feel strongly that it is important to have a venue that will allow each graduate to have more guests to celebrate this milestone moment in their life and for our raft to be together to celebrate.

Commencement day will consist of three parts, the all-otter commencement ceremony, three convocation ceremonies divided by colleges, and the commencement festival - all held on one day at the Salinas Sports Complex.

Commencement Festival
New in 2023, the Commencement Festival includes food and beverages, photo opportunities, gifts, entertainment, and a commemorative electronic photo mosaic art project. The Alumni Association will be on-site to celebrate your accomplishments with you and your family and friends.

Commencement Festival
The Midway - in front of the Rodeo Arena | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21, 2022.

Salinas Sports Complex, 1034 N. Main Street, Salinas, CA

Twenty-Sixth Annual Commencement

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Commencement schedule

College of Business | College of Health Sciences and Human Services

Friday, May 20
Ceremony begins at 3 p.m.
Doors open at 1:30 p.m.

College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Saturday, May 21
Ceremony begins at 10 a.m.
Doors open at 8:30 a.m.

College of Education | College of Science

Saturday, May 21
Ceremony begins at 3 p.m.
Doors open at 1:30 p.m.

Keynote speaker

Eduardo M. Ochoa, CSUMB President

Dr. Eduardo M. Ochoa grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before moving with his family to Portland, Oregon, while in high school. He has earned degrees in physics, nuclear science and economics from Reed College, Columbia University, and the New School for Social Research, respectively. He has worked as an engineer, as a faculty member, dean, and provost and as a member of the Obama Administration.

In 2012 he became president of California State University, Monterey Bay. He will retire this August after 10 years of service at CSUMB. Dr. Ochoa has spent nearly four-decades as a teacher and leader in the California State University system, including his tenure as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Sonoma State University. In February 2010, President Barack Obama named Dr. Ochoa assistant secretary for postsecondary education. In that position, he served as the secretary’s chief adviser on higher education issues and administered more than 60 programs. At CSUMB, Dr. Ochoa established three broad goals for his presidency: establishing excellence in selected fields in response to regional needs; becoming a national leader in the development of new sustainable models of higher education; and developing the university’s catalytic role in regional, cultural and economic development.

Dr. Ochoa moved decisively to deal with the challenges facing the university and the region. His emphasis on inclusion and outreach meshes with both the vision statement of the campus and the realities of serving a student body made up of a majority of first-generation students. He re-focused attention on improving the university’s retention and graduation rates, while stressing the importance of a rigorous educational experience. He has increased the university’s outreach, as it plays a more active role in improving the economy and quality of life on the Central Coast. Dr. Ochoa’s wife, Holly Byers Ochoa, is a historian, writer and editor. They have two adult sons, Michael and Eric.

Honorary degree recipient

Helen Rucker, Doctor of Humane Letters

Helen Rucker, retired educator and longtime community activist, worked as a teacher and librarian for the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District for more than 25 years. After retiring in 1988, she devoted herself to a second career as a civic leader and activist.

Rucker has served as an MPUSD board member, as well as a city council member and mayor pro tem for the city of Seaside. She founded the Seaside Voter Education Center in 2008, holding regular office hours and planning voting rights presentations and voter registration events involving community members and CSUMB service learning students. She is a longtime supporter and active volunteer for many community groups and organizations including the NAACP of Monterey County, the Leon Panetta Lecture Series Task Force, the Service Learning Institute, and the Women’s Leadership Council. In 2011, Helen endowed a scholarship she has awarded annually to CSUMB students since 1998 in honor of her late husband, James Rucker, who served in the U.S. Army on Fort Ord.

For her leadership and service, Helen has received many awards including the 2015 Woman of the Year for the 29th Assembly District, and the 2017 NAACP Medgar Evers Freedom Legacy Award. In 1999, CSUMB honored Helen as a Presidential Fellow for Community and Human Services. The university honored her again in Spring 2022 with an honorary degree and the naming of the Helen Rucker Center for Black Excellence.

Student speakers

Miranda Sampson, Business Administration

Miranda Sampson is graduating from the College of Business with a concentration in agribusiness. Sampson earned an associate’s degree in business administration at Cabrillo College and transferred to CSUMB in Fall 2020 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Miranda’s start at the university was completely virtual, she was determined to make the most out of her college experience. She joined the Agribusiness Club and became club president after two semesters. She completed internships at the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership and CSUMB’s Tanimura and Antle Family Memorial Library. Miranda lived on campus, went to school events, met fellow students, and engaged with inspiring professors. She is unbelievably grateful for the support of professors, supervisors, and mentors during her time at CSUMB.

Misha Zmuda-Arnold Moseley, Collaborative Health and Human Sciences

Misha Zmuda-Arnold Moseley is a Collaborative Health and Human Services graduate passionate about nutritional health. She interned with CSUMB’s Basic Needs Initiative for the past three semesters, serving as a nutritional advisor. Moseley says it was an amazing opportunity to support the health of CSUMB students while pursuing her professional goals in dietary education. She is enthusiastic about sharing the benefits of healthy eating with others to promote holistic well-being for all communities.

Jianshan Chen Khalsa, Psychology

Jianshan Chen Khalsa is a first-generation college graduate, earning Summa Cum Laude academic honors. She transferred to CSUMB from Hartnell College in 2020 and will continue her education as a graduate student in CSUMB’s School Psychology Program. She grew up in a remote farming village in Guangdong Province, China, where she dropped out of high school to support her family. She moved to California in 2016 to pursue her dream of becoming an educator. She plans to become a school psychologist to help diverse student populations receive the services they need to help them thrive and succeed.