RSDM CONVOCATION
MAY 18, 2015 – 4:00pm Ceremony Begins
New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), Newark
PRIOR TO CONVOCATION:
Invitations and Tickets: Invitations will be distributed, and all students can invite as many
guests as they would like to the Convocation. Students will just let us know how many tickets
requested and the Office of Students will be dispensing tickets at a later date. Tickets will be
numbered…… BUT THEY ARE GENERAL ADMISSION – PLEASE ALERT YOUR FAMILIES TO THIS
FACT, AS NJPAC WILL NOT ALLOW SEATS TO BE RESERVED OR “SAVED” FOR LATE COMERS
-
AS PER NJPAC - EVERY GUEST MUST HAVE A TICKET, EVEN CHILDREN AND
BABIES. NO ONE WILL BE ADMITTED WITHOUT A TICKET
-
ACCOMODATIONS FOR WHEELCHAIR SEATING- please inform the Office of
Student Affairs when ordering your tickets, as each wheelchair seat requires
2 tickets. Please keep in mind that wheelchair seating is limited and only 1
person can sit with the person in the wheelchair. The remainder of your
guests will be seated in the general audience.

Hooding: as you are aware, the Class of 2015 will be chosing two faculty members to
place the doctoral hood on each of you.

Please see the “Personal Hooder” attached policy from the handbook, for review of the
criteria, if you are considering a personal hooder in lieu of the faculty hooders.

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT NAME OF PERSONAL HOODER IS FRIDAY, APRIL 3rd – please use
the link https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/personalhooder to submit personal hooder
information to Ms. LaToia Taylor, RSDM Registrar

Prior to Convocation, please open your attire package and hang it to release the creases
or iron it using a warm setting.
DAY OF CONVOCATION:

Attire: Shirts and ties for males and dresses/pantsuits for females are suggested attire
for all attendees AND BRING YOUR ACADEMIC ATTIRE - cap, gown, hood and tassel.
- FOR THOSE OF YOU INDUCTED INTO OKU- THE NATIONAL DENTAL HONOR
SOCIETY, YOU WILL BE ASKED TO WEAR YOUR OKU MEDAL (KEY) AND OKU
STOLE.

Arrival Time for PREDOC, PG AND MASTERS Students: no later than 2:30 p.m. - Use the
door nearest to Nico’s Kitchen & Bar restaurant. As for valuables (keys, pocketbooks,
etc.)– RSDM staff will be stationed upstairs in the room where you robed, so valuables
will be protected. Once you have entered the upstairs robing room, you are asked not to
go downstairs to greet families, as the NJPAC ushers will be seating the hundreds of
family members quickly so the ceremony can begin on time promptly at 4:00 p.m.

Arrival Time for Family/Guests: NJPAC doors will open at 3:30pm and family and guests
must enter through the Rotunda. The theater doors will open at 4:00pm, and in order to
be allowed to be seated, every guest MUST have a ticket, even children and babies! NO
ONE will be allowed into NJPAC without a ticket. If guests wish to be seated together
that they should all arrive together as the NJPAC ushers will not allow seats to be
reserved or “saved” for latecomers.
Strollers: may be parked in the “kiddie korral” in the lobby; none are allowed in the
auditorium.
CONVOCATION IS CONSIDERED BY THE UNIVERSITY TO BE A DIGNIFIED, OFFICIAL
CEREMONY SIGNIFYING YOU ARE BECOMING DOCTOR PLEASE TELL YOUR FAMILY THAT:
NJPAC WILL NOT ALLOW CONFETTI, BALLOONS, AIR HORNS, ETC. INTO THE THEATER.
ANY GUESTS FOUND TO HAVE THE ABOVE NOTED ITEMS PRIOR TO THE CEREMONY
WILL NOT BE ALLOWED IN TO BE SEATED OR WILL BE ESCORTED FROM THE THEATER
BY THE USHERS DURING THE CEREMONY

Parking: Parking for a fee is available adjacent to the right of the building in the NJPAC
parking lot and in the Military Park Garage.

Check In: at table with staff for yourself and for PERSONAL HOODER and proceed up
the staircase to the robing room, signs will direct you to “The Community Room”.
Please remain upstairs, and do not go downstairs until you process with your class. Staff
will help you gown, place on cap with:
- TASSEL ON RIGHT SIDE AND PLACE YOUR HOOD OVER LEFT ARM, with the
narrowest part of hood away from you.

3:00 p.m. OKU, GAMMA PI, AND CLASS OF 2015 PICTURE: proceed to the staircase for
a class photograph. Please be on time; the photographer is on a strict schedule, and he
must be in the theater ready for when all of you process in.
Order of photographs:
- OKU
- Gamma Pi
- Class of 2015 DMD Graduates
- Postgraduates

3:30p.m. line up for processional: After the photo return to The Community Room and
sit in your assigned seat – this will place you in alphabetical order help RSDM staff line
you up for the processional

Order of Processional:
1. DR. GAETANO SPINATO - THE GONFALON BEARER
2. CLASS OF 2015 – PREDOC STUDENTS – FIRST IN LINE RACHEL
THOMAS,SGA PRESIDENT, SECOND IN LINE- SERAH UDDARAJU, CLASS
PRESIDENT
3. CLASS OF 2015 - PG STUDENTS
4. MASTER EDUCATORS
5. FACULTY
6. PLATFORM PARTY
-
WALKING DOWN AND INTO THE THEATER: the aisles stairs are wooden and
can be slippery. Please be careful when processing in/out of the theatre.

Processional entering the NJPAC Theater and seating: There are two main aisles to
enter the theater. Staff will assist you as you come down the stairs from the robing
room, and will make sure that every other row will enter on the left or the right aisle for
the end result of students sitting in alphabetical order in the first several rows of the
orchestra. Your name will be on the seat.

Faculty Hooders: For the hooding ceremony, you will proceed up the riser on the far
right of the stage. BRING NOTHING WITH YOU; NO PROGRAMS, NO FLOWERS, NO
BABIES, ONLY YOUR HOOD.
Hand THE NARROWEST PART OF your hood to one of the hooders, turn and face the
audience, and be hooded.
-

Post-graduates, except MSD or MDS graduates, will not be hooded.
Personal hooders: As you line-up to be hooded, your personal hooder will come
forward from their seat in the audience and stand next to you. BRING NOTHING WITH
YOU; NO PROGRAMS, NO FLOWERS, NO BABIES, ONLY YOUR HOOD.
Prior to going up the stairs to the stage, Dr. Conte will check that your personal hooder
is on the list based on the information that you turned into LaToia Taylor by the April
3rd deadline. If your personal hooder is not on the list, they will not be allowed to hood
you, and instead you will bring your hood to one of the faculty hooders to be hooded.
If your personal hooder is listed, you and your personal hooder will ascend to the stage,
your personal hooder will go up on the riser, face the audience take the narrowest part
of the hood from you, you will turn and face the audience and be hooded. Your
personal hooder will return to his/her seat, descending the same stairs they came up
to the stage on and you ALONE will continue across the stage
FOR ALL STUDENTS, AFTER RECEIVING THEIR HOOD & FOR PG AND MASTERS
STUDENTS
Continue across the stage to the left, you will stop for at three points:
1. Receive an RSDM pin from Dr. Anthony Volpe, NJDS Class of 1960,
2. Received your RSDM Diploma, Shake hands with Dr. Feldman (you will
have a picture taken at this point),
3. Receive your RSDM Alumni Certificate from the President of Alumni
Association (Dr. Rosa Chaviano-Moran), and your Gamma Pi certificate
for those that are members.
Go back down the stage on the opposite staircase and return to your seat from the
opposite side of your row.

Program and Oath: Programs will be found on each seat. After you have received your
hood and diploma and returned to your seat, the Class will be asked to stand to recite
the dental oath, found inside the back page.

Order of Recessional:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

PLATFORM PARTY
FACULTY
MASTER EDUCATORS
CLASS OF 2015 - POSTDOCTORAL STUDENT
CLASS OF 2015 - PREDOCTORAL STUDENTS
Please do not forget to return to the robing room to retrieve your valuables, suit jackets,
etc. that you may have left there.
POST CONVOCATION:

Pictures: you are welcome to take family pictures at NJPAC, and then may go out to
dinner within the Newark area or surrounding area.

Dinner: is available at the restaurant within NJPAC – ‘NICO” and many families routinely
do stay right at the theater, and walk through the lobby right into the restaurant. If you
are considering doing this- NICO can only seat approximately 200 people, and normally
we have close to a 1,000 plus at the Convocation ceremony, so please make the
reservation early. Information about restaurants in the area will be sent to you
electronically at a later date.