• Rutgers’ commencement will take place for the ninth time in HighPoint.com Stadium on the Busch Campus in Piscataway. From 2004 through 2010, commencement was held on Voorhees Mall on Rutgers University-New Brunswick’s College Avenue Campus. Prior to its return to Voorhees Mall, which dates from the earliest days of the institution, graduation for many years was held in the Louis Brown Athletic Center on the Livingston Campus in Piscataway.

• This year’s estimated total of 18,825 graduates is up from last year’s total of 18,012.

• Since its founding in 1766 and through the 2017-18 academic year, Rutgers has awarded 598,874 academic degrees. Matthew Leydt received the first degree, a Bachelor of Arts, from Queen’s College in 1774. He was the sole graduate. Following graduation, Leydt was licensed to enter the ministry of the Dutch Reformed Church. 

• University President Robert Barchi will preside over his seventh commencement and confer undergraduate and graduate degrees at ceremonies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Rutgers University-Newark and Rutgers University-Camden.

• 6,500 chairs for graduates and faculty will be placed on the football field. The platform is erected at the stadium’s south end. Commencement seating capacity (excluding field seating) is approximately 41,000.

• Individual graduates will be recognized at their respective collegiate convocations and receptions.

• Suzanne Link, president of the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA), will represent the Class of 2019. Raised in Paramus, New Jersey, Link is graduating cum laude with a double major in human resource management and labor studies and employment relations with a concentration in law in the workplace. Link served as College Avenue Campus representative at-large and legislative affairs chair before being elected RUSA president, the second woman ever to serve in the role.


Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a leading national research university and the state of New Jersey’s preeminent, comprehensive public institution of higher education. Established in 1766, the university is the eighth oldest higher education institution in the United States. More than 70,000 students and 23,400 full- and part-time faculty and staff learn, work, and serve the public at Rutgers locations across New Jersey and around the world.