When Columbia College launched Core to Commencement two and a half years ago, we set out to enhance every part of the undergraduate experience to ensure it was the best possible.
Those of us susceptible to nostalgic reveries of youthful heartache and self-invention (which is to say, all of us) longed to get our hands on Nicholls's new novel, once our friend revealed its premise: In 1988, the day after commencement, two college graduates briefly, romantically collide.
Prior to the event's commencement, two matches were held during the 30 minute pre-show.
"It's my commencement," one student told faculty members.
His classmates, determined that Mr. Shearer should still graduate with plenty of fanfare, organized this commencement four days before their own, which is Monday.
Inevitably, in the end it came down to Tuesday's Commencement, five weeks after Kent State and every subsequent campus complication mankind could conjure up.
The strong play of Rickie Fowler and Bud Cauley, and the continuing struggles of Woods, a 14-time major champion, call to mind a line that Steve Jobs delivered at a Stanford commencement six years before his death.
He astutely surmised reasonable attendance could be expected, because in that era, anyone who returned to campus for Commencement three years after graduation qualified for an automatic master's degree (a practice lasting until 1892).
Also at Commencement, three College alumni were among 10 recipients of Alumni Medals for distinguished service of 10 or more years to Columbia: Dr. Paul J. Maddon CC'81, GSAS'88, PS'89; Rita Pietropinto-Kitt CC'93, SOA'96; and Mozelle W. Thompson CC'76, SIPA'79, LAW'81.
Starting with a pre-existing commitment (the Sunday Opening Exercises in the Chapel) the freshmen march, college by college, behind the begowned faculty and their grandparent and parent classes, then in through FitzRandolph Gate, whence they'll exit after their Commencement four years hence to face the New Jersey traffic on Nassau Street.
During the deeply moving commencement, fifteen inmates received diplomas in front of an audience that included their family members, New York State Corrections Commissioner Brian Fischer, and Doris Buffett.
