Commencement

The bitter end, the big sleep, it all ends in tears... Commencement is the ceremony in which degrees are conferred. Also known as graduation. Not to be confused with Class Day.

The first commencement exercises were held in 1758, which would make the 2007 Commencement the 250th. However the University likes to "count" the exercises that weren't held from 1755-1757 (no one graduated until 4 years after the school opened, duh.) So we're up to 253 for some reason.

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 might be big names, though.

This quirk results in the yearly complaints about the Class Day speaker for Columbia College, which students expect to be high profile to make up for the commencement. Usually they're disappointed, though there have been some fine speakers in the past.

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.

External links

• Commencement 2007 website
• Graduation Zone (CC/SEAS)