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503rd Convocation Marks a New Tradition

“When you raise a glass tonight to celebrate your well-earned academic status, save the last sip for a special toast—to make this world, in ways large or small, a more interesting and better place in which to live.”

Paleontologist Paul Sereno, professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, used those words to close his Convocation address Saturday. His remarks reminded this spring’s graduates that many of the most valuable opportunities arise unexpectedly, and he urged them to be open to contingency in their careers.

Some rainfall later in the ceremony did not deter graduates and their 20,000 guests from gathering on the Quadrangles for the University’s 503rd Convocation since 1893. For the first time since 1929, this quarter’s Convocation was conducted as a single campus–wide ceremony, rather than as four sessions held over three days, which had been the recent practice.

The revised format marked a return to the University’s earliest traditions. The University’s first president, William Rainey Harper, originally conceived of convocation as a chance for the entire institution to gather as one—an ideal that the large ceremony on the main Quadrangle made possible.

To account for the large number of graduates, individual schools and departments outside the College held later ceremonies at which degree candidates received their diplomas from their deans.
Read Paul Sereno’s full convocation speech »

By Sara Olkon | Photos by Dan Dry