Almost 900 soon-to-be UC Davis graduates will file into the ARC Pavilion on campus, take to the stage one by one, and move the tassel on their graduation cap from right to left as part of two commencement ceremonies on Sunday, Dec 17.

This year's fall commencements mark the fourth anniversary of a program that was launched to take the pressure off a crowded spring ceremony and now has grown into a popular alternative. Because of demand, one ceremony has become two -- one at 10 a.m. for the College of Letters and Science, and another at 2 p.m. for the colleges of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Engineering and Biological Sciences.

"Our first year, we had only 200 to 300 graduates altogether and were able to fit all four colleges into one ceremony," said Charlene Sweeting, student affairs officer for the College of Biological Sciences. "But the event became so well attended that after two years we had to split it into two. Even now, each of the ceremonies is going to be pushed to the limit."

Leticia Miller, candidate for a Bachelor of Science in psychology, will address almost 450 participating students and their guests at the morning ceremony. In the afternoon, about 425 students are expected to attend, and they will hear from student speaker Sara Khandan, candidate for a B.S. in biological sciences.

Maddy Rehrman, who coordinated ceremonies for Letters and Science for almost eight years and oversaw the introduction of fall commencement before her retirement, was rehired to help organize the college's commencements for the academic year. Despite its quick growth, she said, the fall commencement is a good way of satisfying the needs of students and their guests.

"Students like the idea of a smaller ceremony and that they can receive a greater number of tickets than they can in June when tickets are at a real premium," said Rehrman. "The past few years we have had over 1,000 students in each of our two L&S June ceremonies, thus reducing the number of tickets available.

"We are much more flexible in the December ceremony," she added.

In the spring, UC Davis holds 12 graduation ceremonies for Graduate Studies, the four undergraduate colleges and the five professional schools.