University Commencement

University Commencement is the end of the line. Up to 10,000 degree candidates with up to 40,000 guests cram into Low Plaza and South Lawn and beyond.

Whereas many schools invite a major public figure to deliver the keynote address at commencement, at Columbia that privilege has always been held by the University President. So you're gonna have to listen to Bollinger. Luckily he's a better speaker than e-mail writer. The honorary degree recipients, who aren't announced until the day of commencement, are usualy big names and sometimes deliver brief speeches.

This quirk is the reason for the annual complaints from Columbia undergraduates, whose Class Day speakers tend to be slightly lower profile, since a ceremony for 1,000 students doesn't have quite the pull as Commencement does. Students who expect the Class Day speaker to be high profile to make up for commencement are usually disappointed, though there have been some fine speakers in the past.

Following speeches by Bollinger and honorary degree recipients, each of the schools' deans approaches the podium and presents their class to President Bollinger, who then accepts them and confers upon them their degrees. Graduating members from each school typically wave items representing their discipline during their presentation- apple cores for Columbia College, shredded newspapers for the J-School, a giant toothbrush for Dentistry, etc.

In 1811, commencement was broken up by a student protest. Shocking.

In 1968, the university president did not deliver the address, thanks to the fallout from the protests. Instead history professor Richard Hofstadter delivered the address to the students gathered in St. John the Divine, many of whom staged a walk-out on a pre-arranged signal- WKCR played "The Times They Are A'Changin"- and held a counter-commencement in Morningside Park.