Rice University’s Commencement celebrations will undergo some changes this May to make the ceremonies “more personal and meaningful,” according to Rice President David Leebron. Leebron shared the news in a memorandum to the Rice community Jan. 10.
Leebron said the changes follow nearly a year of planning by a committee of graduate students, undergraduate students, faculty, college masters, commencement marshals and alumni, led by Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Paula Sanders and Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson.
“The committee and I believe that, by separating these events, each event will be more exciting and energetic, while also preserving the strong sense of unity of our community in the Saturday morning commencement,” Leebron wrote.
The campuswide plenary commencement ceremony will remain on Saturday morning and will include the invited commencement speaker along with a full academic procession, the official conferral of all degrees and the traditional exit of the graduates through the Sallyport.
To complement the existing doctoral hooding ceremony and the Jones Graduate School of Business hooding ceremony, both of which will remain on Friday afternoon, a new master’s degree ceremony will be held Friday morning and a new bachelor’s degree ceremony Friday evening.
At each of these three events, every student will be presented individually by name as they proceed across the platform. The undergraduate ceremony Friday evening will be in the Academic Quad and will include speeches by a member of the graduating class and by a faculty member. Undergraduate student award winners will be recognized at this event, which will replace convocation.
The doctoral hooding ceremony will remain in Stude Hall and will be conducted in the traditional manner. A venue has not yet been decided for the new master’s ceremony.
The Commencement ceremonies will be May 16-17.
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Is there some shady, hidden reason why this announcement was made so late? The administration couldn’t announce this MAJOR change until January 10th, for some reason. Members of my class have already informed our families and friends about the May 17th graduation date. Now nothing is happening on May 17th. And I see no point in the Saturday ceremony whatsoever.
How sad. My commencement on the quad was, admittedly, tedious. But I didn’t CARE that it was tedious, because I was sharing that one beautiful moment with family and the friends I’d made in my four years. I didn’t mind sitting through hoodings of doctoral students and awards and all those other things, because it meant we were all part of one great institution. Now, we’re a whole lot of institutions all passing out paper instead of sheepskin. Some traditions are worth keeping, and if we’re too big for those traditions, maybe it’s not the traditions we should be changing.
This sounds like a wonderful idea. We have been to many graduations that lack personal meaning. What a great way to honor graduates and make graduation more meaningful. We are looking forward to being there.
Preserving “unity” while separating the events? Sure. Eventually, people will be unified in their disinterest in the Saturday ceremony, which will be sparsely attended.