I frequently disagree with William Kristol but I do agree with him about commencements. I attended my high school commencement because the nuns said they'd withhold our diplomas if we didn't show up, and they meant it. I did not attend my commencement for my BA, MBA or PhD. But, as a retired professor, I attended too many commencements t…
I frequently disagree with William Kristol but I do agree with him about commencements. I attended my high school commencement because the nuns said they'd withhold our diplomas if we didn't show up, and they meant it. I did not attend my commencement for my BA, MBA or PhD. But, as a retired professor, I attended too many commencements to even think about. Besides the large spring commencement there is usually another, small-scale ceremony in December because not everyone finishes their degrees in the spring and there are rules about who can "walk" if they haven't finished. They all blend together, it was required attendance, it's usually hot in the spring in the regalia for an outside ceremony, heaven help you if it unexpectedly rained or had recently rained. My hair is very straight and the tam that I wore never stayed in place. Rarely do you get a speech that is worth listening to. We once had Hal Holbrook as commencement speaker (this was late in his career) and he must have been having a bad day because all he did was bad mouth the generation of the graduating class (totally grumpy old man, things were better in his day, blah, blah). Luckily, the advent of the iPhone saved me because I could download a book to read and, since everyone had a phone in their hands, you weren't noticed. But, I never forgot that the parents, grandparents, siblings and students were there to celebrate their accomplishments and I always tried to make certain that everything went well (as Associate Dean in a business school) and that everyone was happy and proud. The day wasn't about me. It's very unfortunate that some students and their families and friends will not be able to experience their college commencement. My daughter didn't have a college commencement because of COVID and they were going to have Nancy Pelosi as commencement speaker. She did get a great graduate school commencement though, and it was important to her.
I would think it depends greatly on the size of the school. HS is one thing, college is another. Columbia actually didn't cancel commencement - what they cancelled is the overall one that supposedly includes something like 8,000 students - they can't seriously expect to have thousands of students individually named. That's insane. They're still holding individual commencements for their various schools - there are 20 of them under the Columbia umbrella - I'm thinking like the school of business, the school of journalism, etc.
Very True. Many colleges and universities have one big ceremony with the President/Chancellor, other administrators, Board of Regents, and the main commencement speaker. The President/Chancellor officially confers the degrees and then everyone goes to a different location for their school/college ceremony where they receive their diploma and walk across the stage. This how we did it at the university I was at for >25 years. We also had to do undergraduate commencement on Sunday, with graduate commencement on Saturday. The graduate students didn't want to attend the undergraduate ceremony or the large ceremony and very few showed up. This change increased the number of graduate students who attended commencement. Of course, it was also another commencement that administrators and faculty had to attend.
I frequently disagree with William Kristol but I do agree with him about commencements. I attended my high school commencement because the nuns said they'd withhold our diplomas if we didn't show up, and they meant it. I did not attend my commencement for my BA, MBA or PhD. But, as a retired professor, I attended too many commencements to even think about. Besides the large spring commencement there is usually another, small-scale ceremony in December because not everyone finishes their degrees in the spring and there are rules about who can "walk" if they haven't finished. They all blend together, it was required attendance, it's usually hot in the spring in the regalia for an outside ceremony, heaven help you if it unexpectedly rained or had recently rained. My hair is very straight and the tam that I wore never stayed in place. Rarely do you get a speech that is worth listening to. We once had Hal Holbrook as commencement speaker (this was late in his career) and he must have been having a bad day because all he did was bad mouth the generation of the graduating class (totally grumpy old man, things were better in his day, blah, blah). Luckily, the advent of the iPhone saved me because I could download a book to read and, since everyone had a phone in their hands, you weren't noticed. But, I never forgot that the parents, grandparents, siblings and students were there to celebrate their accomplishments and I always tried to make certain that everything went well (as Associate Dean in a business school) and that everyone was happy and proud. The day wasn't about me. It's very unfortunate that some students and their families and friends will not be able to experience their college commencement. My daughter didn't have a college commencement because of COVID and they were going to have Nancy Pelosi as commencement speaker. She did get a great graduate school commencement though, and it was important to her.
I would think it depends greatly on the size of the school. HS is one thing, college is another. Columbia actually didn't cancel commencement - what they cancelled is the overall one that supposedly includes something like 8,000 students - they can't seriously expect to have thousands of students individually named. That's insane. They're still holding individual commencements for their various schools - there are 20 of them under the Columbia umbrella - I'm thinking like the school of business, the school of journalism, etc.
Very True. Many colleges and universities have one big ceremony with the President/Chancellor, other administrators, Board of Regents, and the main commencement speaker. The President/Chancellor officially confers the degrees and then everyone goes to a different location for their school/college ceremony where they receive their diploma and walk across the stage. This how we did it at the university I was at for >25 years. We also had to do undergraduate commencement on Sunday, with graduate commencement on Saturday. The graduate students didn't want to attend the undergraduate ceremony or the large ceremony and very few showed up. This change increased the number of graduate students who attended commencement. Of course, it was also another commencement that administrators and faculty had to attend.