Graduation Sightings

[rageaholic]

I hate the people who whistle and scream, especially when they are right behind me. I understand that people are excited, but you don't have to scream at the top of your lungs just so your kid will see (and more importantly hear) you making an ass of yourself.

And those fucking airhorns should be shoved somewhere.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

All I have to say is my high school's graduation ceremony pwns all of yours.

It's always outdoors except if it rains (this year was only the second time in over 80 years the ceremony had to be moved to the fieldhouse because it rained on and off Friday.), and instead of caps and gowns girls wear formal dresses and guys wear tuxedos or suits.

Some guys from the junior class are selected to act as ushers, and some junior girls are flower girls; they are dressed similarly to the graduates.

Looking through the local newspaper's pictures of the ceremony on the web, you see girls in dresses in any and all conceivable colors and guys in white or black suits. There was also a guy (I think) in a kilt and codpiece, and some of the Hmong students wear ceremonial regalia.

It's really colorful and really special since we're about the only school anyplace that still does graduation this way. And loud outbursts, air horns, beach balls, and so forth are not tolerated. When my class graduated it was drilled into our heads that these kinds of disruptions were not going to happen. And they didn't.

ETA: Graduation Decorum FAIL

[ExRetailDrone]

It's really colorful and really special since we're about the only school anyplace that still does graduation this way. And loud outbursts, air horns, beach balls, and so forth are not tolerated. When my class graduated it was drilled into our heads that these kinds of disruptions were not going to happen. And they didn't.

My high school graduation ceremony was similar, except it was held in my school's auditorium. The 25 (IIRC) boys in the junior class with the highest GPAs were the ushers, and the 25 girls in the junior class with the highest GPAs were hoop girls (they held bendable pieces that were decorated with fake flowers and crepe paper to make them look nice that the graduates walked through on the way to the stage). The ushers dressed in suits, the hoop girls in prom-type dresses. The graduates knew that they were not to misbehave (and the kids I graduated with usually didn't give a crap) and no one did. We were warned that there would be repercussions if anyone got out of line, which included throwing our caps into the air at the end of it. It was a really nice ceremony, and the only one like it to my knowledge for the area. I had gone to my cousins' graduations and they were loud and obnoxious affairs. The university graduations I've gone to were even worse, with the hoots and air horns. I had a headache by the end of all the rest of them.

[protege]

We were warned that there would be repercussions if anyone got out of line, which included throwing our caps into the air at the end of it.

Yep, we were warned at our high school graduation as well. Of course, we did it anyway...just to piss off the administrators. What were they going to do, as we already had our diplomas? Of course, some of us took it one step further. That is, I literally laid rubber out of the parking lot

[Kogarashi]

Yep, we were warned at our high school graduation as well. Of course, we did it anyway...just to piss off the administrators. What were they going to do, as we already had our diplomas?

My high school, on the other hand, didn't give us actual diplomas at the graduation ceremony. We got empty diploma cases, and would be mailed the diplomas later once final grades and credit requirements were tabulated and everyone actually graduated. So if we got out of line, they actually could withhold our diplomas.

Of course, they also told us not to throw our caps in the auditorium, but there would be room and time outside to do so where it was less crowded--we just needed to write our names in our caps if we wanted that exact one back. And they confiscated the one balloon someone brought in after being told not to.

Only slightly related, I'm still trying to figure out why one of my classmates decided it would be a good idea to binge drink (underage, remember) the night before graduation photos. Which were outside. High noon, June in New York. Hot and muggy, and the guys were all in navy blue graduation robes. Luckily for him, he was able to duck off the back row of risers where he was standing and make a break for the school building. Unluckily for him, he didn't quite make it to the building and ended up needing to borrow a spare robe.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Yep, we were warned at our high school graduation as well. Of course, we did it anyway...just to piss off the administrators. What were they going to do, as we already had our diplomas?

Like Kogarashi, we didn't get the actual diplomas at my high school either. Just the little holders for them. You got your actual diploma in the mail a few weeks to a month or so later.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I vaguely remember cheering/whistling/yelling at my high school graduation, and my "graduation" after my post-grad year at Mercersburg. What I remember most about the Mercersburg graduation was, after the ceremony was finished, several of my classmates took out cigars and lit up. It was a little joke, of sorts. "We're not students anymore, we got our diplomas, now we can light up without getting expelled!"

My graduation when I finished my Associates at ITT Tech? Some idiot had an airhorn and blasted it every time their person's name got mentioned. And they'd earned some honors awards or something as well, so they were called up to the podium at least three times. You could hear everyone else (students and families) give a little groan after each air-horn blast, the sort of gruntish equivalent of "aww not AGAIN."

One funny bit during the ceremony. One of my classmates was an older gentleman, fifties at least, who'd come to ITT Tech to further his education, bone up on current technology, whatever. When he was called up, those of us who were in his same school (and thus had had him as a classmate several terms in a row) gave him a little cheer. I offered up a "Way to go, old man!" which got a laugh, even from him, and he faked an old-man-limp for a few steps.

[Magpie]

Convocation here on the weekend. I swear, DH had better take a while to graduate, because I have lost all ability I had to fake tolerance for these things. He has also been told to finish such that he goes to October convocation. If anyone tries to make me go to the next one, I wont' even bother to hide to body. I can claim justification.

On the university's part: Please, please, please explain to the profs calling the names and to the people giving opening remarks when it's graduate and when it's graduand. The chancellor just plain got it wrong - and he's the one who does the "I confer these degrees" statement! Half the profs just avoided the issue entirely by saying "graduating scholars". Also, let us know when it starts. If the procession FINISHES at 10:00, then convocation doesn't start at 10:00. If you're saying that because of some old-fashioned tradition about what is and isn't part of convocation, then tell people when the ceremonies, of which convocation is only one, start. And is there any possibility you can move the PhD's to the beginning, when people are still paying attention?

Now, I understand that a lot of people never go to church, and that there are churches without a procession. This is why it generally takes the entire length of the procession for people to stand at weddings. This is also why the programme book had the instruction that everyone was supposed to stand. You've been sitting around, bored, for 40 minutes at this point. You mean to tell me that you haven't read the entire thing? And those are the ONLY two times during which you stand in your seat. The rest of us want to see too.

Also, please learn to count to three. You do not cheer/clap after the first name or after the second name. You clap/cheer for ALL THREE graduates (I think I got that right... they've been awarded the degree, they just don't have their hood?) AFTER all three names are announced. If they did something worthy of extra note - like winning an award, or doing a degree which requires original research, they get called solo, so everyone will know for whom you are clapping.

And I know they asked people to not leave early, but might that have been a better option than holding a long conversation?