12 Crazy College Commencement Traditions
Credit: Liu Guanguan / China News Service / Visual China Group / Getty ImagesPlenty of colleges celebrate traditions of various sorts during commencement season. Most involve primal screams, stepping on previously avoided seals, crossing bridges, decorating boulders, or touching statues in appropriate or inappropriate places.
Yet some institutions feature graduation gimmicks ranging from the peculiar to the downright daffy. Those, of course, are worth exploring.
Here, then, are a dozen kooky commencement customs soon to be on display once again across America’s campuses.
Connecticut College: White Spruce Saplings
Connecticut College students are no saps. Yet, since 1993, they’ve carried White Spruce saplings during commencement. Representations of the tree featured on the college’s seal, the saplings symbolize an enduring connection to Conn College. Thanks to an endowed gift from an alumna, this tradition will continue in perpetuity, enabling generations of Camels to pine for the salad days of youth.
Dartmouth College: Walking Sticks
Rival Ivies claim Dartmouth is out in the sticks, and that accusation is never more apt than during commencement season. Graduates belonging to the various senior societies, often rather secretive in nature, parade in wielding canes carved with Griffin, Sphinx, Phoenix, and Hufflepuff (kidding) symbols to display their allegiances. Students in these societies are not chosen but instead tapped — rather gently, one would hope.
Hamilton College: Green Apples
As an ode to Kirkland College, the women’s institution that merged with Hamilton in 1978, students at commencement present Hamilton’s president with a green apple, Kirkland’s emblem. The college’s website proclaims that the granting of the Granny Smith acknowledges Kirkland’s core principles of “diversity, flexibility, and free inquiry.” Rumor has it nearby SUNY-Cortland is entertaining thoughts of establishing a similar tradition.
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Liberty University: Burning Scrubs
Some students have a burning desire to attend Liberty University, though its nursing students just have a desire to burn. Come graduation time, seniors collect their scrubs, gather at the home of the nursing dean, and toss them en masse into a blazing bonfire to symbolize freedom from the rigors of study. It’s a little-known fact that this tradition is responsible for Liberty’s athletic teams being named the Flames.
Smith College: Diploma Circle
Confusion reigns at Smith College, at least temporarily, once commencement concludes. That’s because Smithies don’t receive their own diplomas. To sort out the mess, they gather in the quad, form concentric circles, and exchange diplomas until each graduate leaves with her rightful sheepskin. As legend has it, one year two women named Mary Jones, both earning a degree in history, caused quite a fracas when it could not be determined which was whose.
Stanford University: Wacky Walk
Adorned in costumes ranging from rubber ducks to Thomas the Tank Engine to pads of butter, Stanford students march into commencement displaying a dizzying array of costumes, signs, stuffed animals, and other creative accoutrements to perpetuate the tradition of the Wacky Walk. Of course, the wackiest of the wacky is reserved for the university’s mascot, the nondescript and somewhat frightening tree that has terrorized sidelines for decades.
Texas State University: River Jump
San Antonio may have its River Walk, but San Marcos raises the bar with its River Jump, thanks to reveling students at Texas State. Following graduation, boisterous Bobcats bound into the San Marcos River, which maintains a temperate 72 degrees year-round, and, buoyed by the buoyancy of their graduation gowns, float their way into the Gulf of America.
University of Notre Dame: 3D Architecture Caps
Aim high, Notre Dame tells its students. And so they do. During commencement, graduates of the School of Architecture display model buildings, bridges, monuments, Ferris wheels, skyscrapers, and parks on their caps, according to the university’s website. To prevent obstructed views, Notre Dame parks these graduates in the back row, though this tradition takes a backseat to none.
U.S. Military Academy: The Goat
In today’s vernacular, “Goat” refers to the top of the heap, but convention at West Point suggests otherwise. Each year at graduation, the lowest-ranking cadet earns the title of “goat” and receives a buck from each fellow graduate, resulting in a largesse of roughly $1,000, certainly a lot of doe for a kid. Classmates have herd tails of goats spending winnings on cars (Chèvrelets, no doubt), weddings, and private tutors. All in all, it’s a tradition that can’t be bleat.
Warren Wilson College: White Pine Seedling
Much like their Conn College counterparts, students at Warren Wilson College graduate with shrubbery. After walking across the stage, graduates receive a potted White Pine that they’re encouraged to plant in recognition of their growth at the college. Reportedly, college officials seeking to establish a commencement tradition had a difficult time deciding between this gesture and the ceremonial bestowing of a pork slab gleaned from the college’s farm.
Wellesley College: Hooprolling
If you think getting accepted to Wellesley College requires jumping through hoops, just wait until graduation. During commencement season, seniors at this women’s college don their graduation gowns and roll large hoops down Tupelo Lane, with the fastest hooper earning the honor of being dumped by classmates into Lake Waban. Tradition has it that the waterlogged winner would be the first to marry, though by today’s mores, the rules of engagement have changed such that victory brings success and happiness, however defined.
Williams College: Watch Drop
They say time flies when you’re having fun, and that’s certainly the case at Williams College. To commemorate the joyous occasion of commencement, the Class Bell Ringer (every college should have one) rings a bell at Thompson Chapel, signaling graduates to gather to witness the class president dropping a watch from its tower. Good luck falls upon the class should the watch break. Given that nobody actually owns watches these days, the custom now features the official dropping of a cellphone (not really).