University of California, Riverside Doctoral Diploma My degree was "certified" on January 8, 2014, conferred on March 21, 2014, and commencement was held on June 16, 2014. However, UCR needed more time to grow and harvest the tree to produce the paper, not to mention make the ink, before they finally notified me, on July 31, 2014, that my diploma was finally available. Just the same, I like it.