Commencement: A Beginning

Rather than an ending, commencement - both the word and the ceremony - represents a beginning. It is appropriate that an occasion which marks the beginning of a new phase of life should be conducted with pomp and circumstance, stateliness and tradition.

The ceremony of commencement celebrated at colleges and universities throughout the world has its roots in the scholastic traditions of the Middle Ages. It is an ancient, dignified, and highly symbolic ritual of conclusion and emergence, a rite of passage into a new life.