Continual beginnings
The circumstance of commencement may change, but the pomp endures.
The university that came into the world as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College underwent a name change before its first class graduated on June 19, 1878. Those six graduates of The Ohio State University, all men, received their diplomas in the University Hall chapel and heard President Edward Orton speak on “The Liberal Education of the Industrial Class.”
Prior to that first commencement, a “colors committee” of three students was tasked with choosing ribbons to secure the graduates’ diplomas. Unable to Google “university colors already taken,” the students’ first choice was orange and black, but they settled for scarlet and gray after learning Princeton had used their top pick. Committee member Alice Townshend shared the thinking that would go on to shape the wardrobes of hundreds of thousands of students, alumni and sports fans: Scarlet and gray looked nice together, and no other university had yet laid claim to them.
Thus, Ohio State’s earliest alumni were sent into the world with scarlet-and-gray-beribboned diplomas in hand, the first of some 745,000 degrees the university has awarded.
Today, the university’s thrice-yearly commencements are filled with meaning and traditions that have been building for nearly a century and a half. Take a look at how these undertakings have evolved in the years since that inaugural class.
1879
Ohio State’s second graduating class includes the first alumna, Mary Franc Morrison, who earns her degree four decades before women are granted the right to vote. Morrison Tower residence hall is named for her.
1882
Commencement becomes a four-day event that includes a baccalaureate sermon, an address by President Walter Q. Scott, lectures, a parade and a reception at the president’s house.
(Photos courtesy of University Archives.)
1909
An increasing number of graduates prompts commencement to move from University Hall for the first time. Other locations through the years include the Oval, Armory, Ohio State Fairgrounds’ Coliseum, Men’s Gymnasium and eventually Ohio Stadium. Some of those locations and St. John Arena also host commencements after the fall, winter and summer terms. Today, all celebrations other than the spring commencement take place at the Schottenstein Center.
1928
The first commencement in Ohio Stadium also features the first female commencement speaker, Helen Parkhurst. She is a national expert on alternative elementary school instruction and conducts a demonstration school on campus for education majors.
1932
Constraints of the Great Depression return commencement to a one-day affair.
1941
This ceremony marks the first of only two times the event is canceled because of rain. The second comes in 1997, after which President E. Gordon Gee’s office sends graduates the day’s program, “to replace the one that may have served as your umbrella.”
1949
WOSU radio broadcasts commencement for the first time.
1974
The August ceremony features President Gerald Ford, the first of three sitting presidents to address Ohio State graduates. The others: President George W. Bush in 2002 and President Barack Obama in 2013.
1999
Renovations to Ohio Stadium move spring commencement to the Oval for the first time since 1918, and it is held there through spring 2001.
2003
Student government succeeds in having spring commencement moved from Friday to Sunday to allow more families to attend.
2008
A new tradition begins with the first Commencement Eve Candlelight Ceremony, held on the Oval the evening before graduation. Students and their families hear from university leaders and a student speaker, receive a class pin and sing “Carmen Ohio.”
2012
The university’s 400th commencement ceremony also is its final one under the quarter system.
2017
About 11,500 graduates march in spring commencement. Planning for the day takes a village or, more accurately, about a dozen university offices and all academic units. See a gallery of photos celebrating the university’s largest-ever graduating class.
Stephanie Waite contributed.
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