I've always found the fact that EVERYONE walks together, regardless of degree or program, at the same event on the same day a testament to the smaller and close-knit nature of the university. I remember seeing my UT/A&M friends talking about their commencements and how it was limited only to their one specific degree/major combination and how if they had friends in another program, they essentially wouldn't see them graduate.
Obviously, this isn't approaching the level of that, but I guess having to "split up" commencement is just another side-affect of the expanding of the student body.
Disagree with this decision. We are not tu or the agricultural and mechanical college of our great state. Rice is unique and our sense of community is lessened by this set of separate ceremonies. I'd rather suffer though one long ceremony than two separate shorter ones. I also question how many students (graduates) will show for the Saturday commencement address once they have their degree in hand on Friday. Add my vote as not a fan!
(01-13-2014 04:05 PM)exowlswimmer Wrote: Disagree with this decision. We are not tu or the agricultural and mechanical college of our great state. Rice is unique and our sense of community is lessened by this set of separate ceremonies. I'd rather suffer though one long ceremony than two separate shorter ones. I also question how many students (graduates) will show for the Saturday commencement address once they have their degree in hand on Friday. Add my vote as not a fan!
I don't like this new plan. My take was a bit different than yours: I'd probably skip Friday night and attend Saturday's traditional ceremony. I can see a scenario where graduates start picking one or the other, in which case both events would be diminished by lower-than-expected turnout.
(01-13-2014 04:05 PM)exowlswimmer Wrote: Disagree with this decision. We are not tu or the agricultural and mechanical college of our great state. Rice is unique and our sense of community is lessened by this set of separate ceremonies. I'd rather suffer though one long ceremony than two separate shorter ones. I also question how many students (graduates) will show for the Saturday commencement address once they have their degree in hand on Friday. Add my vote as not a fan!
Not a fan either. So, friends and family will have to get all dressed up Friday night for the diploma ceremony, then do it all over again on Saturday morning just to sit through commencement addresses? I can see families going out for late brunches instead, depending on how late the Friday night celebrations continued.
My daughter is receiving her undergraduate degree this May. I've forwarded this to her to see what she thinks about this new policy, but my personal reaction is negative. That said, I'm betting she will want to soak up the whole extended experience and her family will be right there with her.
Seems like a colossal head-scratcher, unless there's been an active dialogue about this change and the community agrees that its' the way to go.
Personally, it's hard to imagine that all the students/parents/friends will want to attend both of their graduates' partial-events. (I'm glad my kids' colleges are not so large as to feel forced to divorce the speaker from the diploma handoff.)
I predict that unless the Saturday speaker is really, really popular, there will be many empty seats on Saturday morning ... unless they ask for RSVPs so they can set out only about as many as they expect to attend.
This strikes me as a predictable part of getting bigger, along with the new colleges, the serveries, etc. That doesn't mean I have to like it, but, for some reason, it doesn't bother me so much. I actually like the idea of a ceremony for the bachelor degrees because it's the last time (second to matriculation) that the whole class is in one place together, without the graduate students.
It would be fun if the bachelor degree ceremony is like Class Day at some schools, where the speaker is someone irreverent and fun. For example, Harvard's Class Days usually feature someone in comedy, like Amy Poehler, or Conan O'Brien, or some such.
Of course, Rice historically does not get very famous or fun speakers (there have been exceptions, of course) for Commencement, so I doubt the bachelor degree ceremony would all of a sudden break from that practice.
(This post was last modified: 01-14-2014 08:37 AM by Barrett.)
I don't mind the splitting up the way they've done it...happens as the school grows bigger, and not like the undergrads and grad students share many similar experiences. I would, however, make it all on one day...that's what my law school did, and it worked pretty well. Have the all-inclusive graduation on Saturday morning with the speaker, and then split up...the more you spread it out, the less well attended these will be
I like the idea of making commencement more "personal and meaningful" and spreading it over Friday and Saturday. I don't like the way they are planning to do it. Commencement doesn't need more ceremonies.
My proposal would be to keep the Saturday morning ceremony about the same. If the goal is to shorten that ceremony, there are ways to do that without removing the awarding of the degrees. Let's get rid of or shorten some of the talks instead. After all, what do people really remember about commencement? I think most remember walking across the stage much more than the speeches.
The Friday events should be more about celebrations than ceremonies. It could be an opportunity for the schools and other campus units to have open houses and/or receptions. A campus-wide party afterward would be a great way to welcome our new alumni and their families.
(01-14-2014 11:46 AM)Owlbert Patrick Wrote: I like the idea of making commencement more "personal and meaningful" and spreading it over Friday and Saturday. I don't like the way they are planning to do it. Commencement doesn't need more ceremonies.
My proposal would be to keep the Saturday morning ceremony about the same. If the goal is to shorten that ceremony, there are ways to do that without removing the awarding of the degrees. Let's get rid of or shorten some of the talks instead. After all, what do people really remember about commencement? I think most remember walking across the stage much more than the speeches.
The Friday events should be more about celebrations than ceremonies. It could be an opportunity for the schools and other campus units to have open houses and/or receptions. A campus-wide party afterward would be a great way to welcome our new alumni and their families.
I know I don't remember the speaker at my Rice Graduation.... there wasn't one.
We thought it was a great tradition that there was no Speaker unlike a Enormous State U. The focus was on the graduates.
When did invited speakers become part Rice a Graduation?
I also remember the speaker at my UTMB commencement... it was Lady Bird.
(01-14-2014 09:37 PM)Memphis Owl Wrote: I know I don't remember the speaker at my Rice Graduation.... there wasn't one.
We thought it was a great tradition that there was no Speaker unlike a Enormous State U. The focus was on the graduates.
Hear, hear! Unfortunately, sometime in the 1990s the undergrads began to whine that they wanted graduation to be MORE like everyone else's, rather than less -- and they convinced the administration to go along. An unnecessary move at the time, and still without much point. There are much better ways to use that money and that time.
(01-14-2014 09:37 PM)Memphis Owl Wrote: I know I don't remember the speaker at my Rice Graduation.... there wasn't one.
We thought it was a great tradition that there was no Speaker unlike a Enormous State U. The focus was on the graduates.
When did invited speakers become part Rice a Graduation?
I also remember the speaker at my UTMB commencement... it was Lady Bird.
According to the Centennial video on Rice Commencement Speakers (link below), Rice commencements had no outside speakers during World War II and from 1971-1990 (Hackerman & Rupp presidencies). Early Commencement addresses were made by serious academics or educators; more recently they've been either prominent politicians or comedians. With the last two (Salman Kahn & Neil deGrasse Tyson), however, the headliners have been dynamic educators.
(This post was last modified: 01-15-2014 02:33 AM by Almadenmike.)
(01-14-2014 09:37 PM)Memphis Owl Wrote: I know I don't remember the speaker at my Rice Graduation.... there wasn't one.
We thought it was a great tradition that there was no Speaker unlike a Enormous State U. The focus was on the graduates.
When did invited speakers become part Rice a Graduation?
I also remember the speaker at my UTMB commencement... it was Lady Bird.
According to the Centennial video on Rice Commencement Speakers (link below), Rice commencements had no outside speakers during World War II and from 1971-1990 (Hackerman & Rupp presidencies). Early Commencement addresses were made by serious academics or educators; more recently they've been either prominent politicians or comedians. With the last two (Salman Kahn & Neil deGrasse Tyson), however, the headliners have been dynamic educators.
I remember that James Baker spoke at the 1991 graduation, and now that you mention it, I remember people saying at the the time that he was the first "outside" speaker Rice had had in many years. But of course he wasn't invited as an "outsider" at all: as I recall, the occasion on which his invitation was based was for him to accept the Rice Gold Medal on behalf of his grandfather. And even though the Baker Institute was still in the future, his public policy involvement with Rice had already begun. And while I don't know this, my assumption at the time was that he spoke without an honorarium.
I don't remember anyone saying at the time that the invitation to Baker was intended to start a trend of hired celebrity speakers, and it certainly didn't occur to me that it would.
(01-14-2014 09:37 PM)Memphis Owl Wrote: I know I don't remember the speaker at my Rice Graduation.... there wasn't one.
We thought it was a great tradition that there was no Speaker unlike a Enormous State U. The focus was on the graduates.
When did invited speakers become part Rice a Graduation?
I also remember the speaker at my UTMB commencement... it was Lady Bird.
According to the Centennial video on Rice Commencement Speakers (link below), Rice commencements had no outside speakers during World War II and from 1971-1990 (Hackerman & Rupp presidencies). Early Commencement addresses were made by serious academics or educators; more recently they've been either prominent politicians or comedians. With the last two (Salman Kahn & Neil deGrasse Tyson), however, the headliners have been dynamic educators.
I remember that James Baker spoke at the 1991 graduation, and now that you mention it, I remember people saying at the the time that he was the first "outside" speaker Rice had had in many years. But of course he wasn't invited as an "outsider" at all: as I recall, the occasion on which his invitation was based was for him to accept the Rice Gold Medal on behalf of his grandfather. And even though the Baker Institute was still in the future, his public policy involvement with Rice had already begun. And while I don't know this, my assumption at the time was that he spoke without an honorarium.
I don't remember anyone saying at the time that the invitation to Baker was intended to start a trend of hired celebrity speakers, and it certainly didn't occur to me that it would.
What's interesting to me is that we've now had outside speakers for the last 24 years, which is longer than the well-remembered - but only 20 year long - trend of having the University President speak.
(01-14-2014 09:37 PM)Memphis Owl Wrote: I know I don't remember the speaker at my Rice Graduation.... there wasn't one.
We thought it was a great tradition that there was no Speaker unlike a Enormous State U. The focus was on the graduates.
When did invited speakers become part Rice a Graduation?
I also remember the speaker at my UTMB commencement... it was Lady Bird.
According to the Centennial video on Rice Commencement Speakers (link below), Rice commencements had no outside speakers during World War II and from 1971-1990 (Hackerman & Rupp presidencies). Early Commencement addresses were made by serious academics or educators; more recently they've been either prominent politicians or comedians. With the last two (Salman Kahn & Neil deGrasse Tyson), however, the headliners have been dynamic educators.
I remember that James Baker spoke at the 1991 graduation, and now that you mention it, I remember people saying at the the time that he was the first "outside" speaker Rice had had in many years. But of course he wasn't invited as an "outsider" at all: as I recall, the occasion on which his invitation was based was for him to accept the Rice Gold Medal on behalf of his grandfather. And even though the Baker Institute was still in the future, his public policy involvement with Rice had already begun. And while I don't know this, my assumption at the time was that he spoke without an honorarium.
I don't remember anyone saying at the time that the invitation to Baker was intended to start a trend of hired celebrity speakers, and it certainly didn't occur to me that it would.
What's interesting to me is that we've now had outside speakers for the last 24 years, which is longer than the well-remembered - but only 20 year long - trend of having the University President speak.
I greatly enjoyed the speech at my commencement (Mohamad Yunus in 2010). The ceremony was rained out and the backup plan in Tudor was a cluster, so this was one of the highlights of the ceremony. My parents enjoyed it as well and were very complimentary towards Rice for the selection.
