The Evergreen State College honored 683 degree-seeking graduates at its 2026 commencement ceremonies, a number the college called "astounding," at a campus that saw enrollment cut nearly in half between 2016 and 2022.

Olympia Mayor Dontae Payne delivered the keynote address on Friday, June 12, at 1 p.m. on the campus's central plaza, Red Square. Payne earned a Bachelor of Arts in 2018 and a Master of Public Administration in 2020 from Evergreen, and served in the U.S. Army before enrolling.

Elected mayor in November 2023 after joining the Olympia City Council in 2021, Payne is the first Black American and openly gay person elected to the office in the city's history, according to the college's commencement announcement. After the ceremony, he wrote on his official Facebook page that his "heart is so full after delivering the keynote address at my alma mater."

The 683 graduates span undergraduate and graduate programs across Evergreen's Olympia and Tacoma campuses. No prior-year comparison was provided. But the figure comes after a steep decline: Evergreen's 2024 AdHoc Report documented total fall headcount dropping from 4,089 students in 2016 to 2,116 in 2022. The college also faced a $7.3 million operating budget deficit that year, according to a December 2025 report in the Cooper Point Journal. Evergreen subsequently launched a strategic enrollment recovery plan.

A separate Tacoma ceremony took place Saturday, June 13, at the Silver Cloud Hotel at Point Ruston Waterfront. The Olympia event was free and open to the public, with Evergreen Parkway closed to inbound traffic from 2 to 4 p.m. to accommodate crowds.