On May 1, 1797, Union held its first commencement when three men received diplomas during a ceremony in the Dutch Reformed church. The students were the featured speakers and that ceremony, like the 127 that followed, was held in a city church because the College lacked a formal space large enough on campus.
Commencement finally moved to campus in 1925 with the opening of Memorial Chapel, where it stayed until it outgrew the space in 1947. The ceremony then alternated between a number of places both on and off campus over the next couple of decades, according to the invaluable College encyclopedia by Wayne Somers.
On Sunday, June 13th at 10 a.m., nearly 500 students in the Class of 2010 will receive their degrees during the College’s 216th commencement ceremony on Hull Plaza, a space that has hosted Commencement since 1969. Well, except for a handful forced inside to Achilles Rink because of rain.
The ceremony features a splash of Hollywood, the speaker being Alan Horn '64, president and chief operating officer of Warner Bros., which is responsible for blockbusters such as “The Dark Knight” and all six films in the Harry Potter franchise. No word on whether Horn, who will receive an honorary doctor of fine arts degree from Union, will read from a script.
“Under Alan Horn's leadership, Warner Brothers has become one of Hollywood’s most influential and successful movie studios,” said President Stephen C. Ainlay. “He has often been celebrated for his creativity, business acumen and insights into popular culture, and we are delighted he will return to the College to share his perspectives with our Class of 2010."
The College will also award an honorary doctor of science degree to Mildred Dresselhaus, one of the country’s top experts in physics and a leading advocate for women in science and engineering.
Dresselhaus was nominated for the honor by Palma Catravas and Helen Hanson, assistant professors in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Cherrice Traver, dean of engineering.
Once dubbed the “Queen of Carbon Science” for her widely recognized research on carbon science and carbon nanonstructures, Dresselhaus has spent more than 40 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Finally, this year’s Commencement does have something in common with that first ceremony in 1797. The number of featured students in this year’s class – student speaker Nikhil Kothari; valedictorian Paul C. Hebert; and salutatorian Emily Feld – matches the total size of that first class.