Commencements

Sunday is Cornell Commencement.   I used to work at the university and in those early years, I was always so thrilled by the Commencement Day festivities.  Specifically,  I enjoyed the Procession to Schoelkopf, and loved to hear the then President Rhodes give the address. No one could do it better!  I was usually working on those occasions, helping with the college gathering on the Arts Quad.

Gerry still does work at Cornell, and every year he participates in Commencement Day.  He has eight advisees graduating this year, and likes to be there to greet them, and perhaps their families.  It is only in the past couple of years that he has bought his own gown, and also his doctorate hood.  In earlier years, he would rent the gown, like the students do.

I think perhaps my favorite part was really the Procession.  A procession in my profession would mean that a group of clergy process down the aisle of the church or cathedral or gathering place.  This is nothing like that at all.  First, all the colleges gather on the Arts Quad.   They line up by college alphabetically, because each group enters Schoelkopf as a college, each with banner carriers.    Once everyone is in the stadium,  there are so many people, that folks sitting in the bleachers can barely see the graduates, who are so far away and so many.  To really see all the fun part,  one really has to watch the Procession.   The procession is half way across the campus, and takes at least an hour, if all goes according to plan.  There you see the unique things grads have written on their caps, or are carrying so their loved ones can see them in the crowd, or are wearing, either on their feet, or under their robes.  
There was always some sight that was very touching that would bring tears to my eyes.

There are probably thirty thousand people gathered in and around Schoelkppf, and three or four thousand graduates.  There could be nothing more disruptive than a deluge of rain during the morning hours.  There is really no other place to put that many people.  There is a back up plan, of course, but it loses its punch if the crowd splits to a variety of locations.   Mostly, in all the years that commencement has been held outside, it has not rained.  

But as luck would have it, when my firstborn Brenda graduated in 1992, it was 37 degrees and raining!  I remember it vividly.  The day before, it had been 85 and humid, and I was out shopping for sun screen!  But not on the day of commencement.  As I recall, we enjoyed it anyway, laughing at our bad luck.  

New York weather in May is just unpredictable!  My mother happened to come for Brenda's graduation, and that was the weather we got.  A few years later, she came on Mother's Day, and it snowed.  Seriously!!