Rain Plan

In the event of severe thunder and/or lightning, there will not be a Main Ceremony or formal academic procession. Students and guests should proceed directly to Department Ceremonies which will begin at either 8:30am or 1:00pm. The President's Reception will be relocated to Eickhoff Hall.

PLEASE be sure you know your Department Ceremony location prior to Commencement to avoid confusion in the event of inclement weather.

NOTE: SEATING ARRANGEMENTS DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER

Guests will be admitted to the various school and Department Ceremonies only as space permits. Seating is limited to three guests per graduate, subject to the discretion of the individual department. The starting time for events scheduled to follow the departmental ceremonies may be affected.

Methods of Notification

If the rain plan is activated for commencement, the campus community will be notified the following ways: 

1. A blanket voice mail message will be sent to all campus extensions. Campus voice mail can be accessed from a remote location by dialing 609/771-2050 and following the prompts to listen to messages. No message means that the rain plan is not in effect.

PLEASE NOTE: If a voice mailbox is full or not accepting messages, the blanket message cannot be left on that voice mail and the user must rely on another method of notification. 

2. A universal e-mail message will be sent to all users @tcnj.edu. 

3. An Announcemnet will be posted to the College of New Jersey home page.

4. The College will notify radio stations:

WTSR 91.3 FM
WPST 94.5 FM
WKXW 101.5 FM

Please be aware it can take up to an hour or more to notify all stations and have the announcement aired as the radio stations have only a limited number of people taking this information. 

5. Callers may dial the inclement weather hotline at 609/637-6000. The greeting on this extension will inform callers if the rain plan is in effect. To avoid inundating the 637-6000 phone number, which can handle only a limited number of callers at one time, the campus community is urged to first check voice mail to find out whether the rain plan is in effect.

6. Signs will be placed at both campus entrances notifying guests that the main ceremony has been canceled.

In the event that the MAIN Ceremony is CANCELED and the PRESIDENT'S RECEPTION is relocated due to inclement weather, the pick-up of the preordered Department of Biology flower BOUQUETS will be at the ATRIUM of the Library, across from Eickhoff Hall.