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Commencement

The Trinity Pipes perform the alma mater, “’Neath the Elms” at the Bicentennial Commencement Ceremony, 2024. Photo credit: Trinity College

Commencement is the ceremony at the end of each academic year when graduating students receive their diplomas. Typically occurring mid- to late-May on Trinity's Main Quad, the ceremony features speeches and awards given by and to a variety of students, faculty, and staff. These awards include Trustee Awards for faculty and staff, as well as awards presented for Student Excellence. It is also traditional for graduating seniors to deliberately step on the Roosevelt Plaque during the ceremony, as doing it before Commencement is thought by students to be bad luck.

Initially, commencement was held on the first Thursday of August, but was moved in the 1850s to the last Thursday in June in order to allow for more comfortable weather. The ceremony was consistently held in June for over 100 years, with the switch to May ceremonies occurring in the 1970s.

The location of commencement has also changed. In the early years of the College, when it was still at its original location, the ceremony would start by the (old) Chapel at 8:30 a.m. At 9:30, the group would leave campus and head to Asylum Street, where they would stop at Bishop Thomas Church Brownell's house and sing “Auld Lang Syne.” The procession then would continue to the venue where the commencement ceremony was to be held. The earliest ceremonies were held in Central Congregational Church until 1831, when the location was changed to the newly completed Christ Church. The church, along with Trinity students and staff, was also often full of children from the local community, as many Hartford schools gave students the day off on Trinity's commencement day.

The last ceremony to be held in Christ Church was in 1860. It was moved to St. John's Church in 1861, but due to the large number of people the space had to hold, the ceremony was moved again the following year to Allyn Hall. The commencement ceremony of 1878 was the last one to be held at the old campus, and the president's reception that year took place in the newly built Seabury Hall on the new campus.

Due to the smaller student body in the College's early years on the old campus, each graduating senior was able to receive his degree directly from the president and shake his hand. Though inconsistent throughout the decades, it was also traditional for each graduate to touch “The Book.” Other early commencements also included welcoming speeches given in Latin, prayers spoken by the president, and music provided by the choir at Christ Church. Local Hartford bands also supplied music over the course of the day, something that is true to modern ceremonies.

Commencements during Wartime

One of the most striking factors to spark change in the rituals and rhetoric that have constituted Trinity’s commencement ceremonies of years past has been war. During World Wars I and II, during which many of Trinity’s undergraduate men fought overseas, commencement proceedings took on a heavy patriotic and memorializing emphasis, along with meager graduating classes and fragmented academic schedules. Degrees were conferred in absentia to those graduates serving in the armed forces.

Navy cadets at the 1943 Commencement. Photo credit: Trinity College Alumni News, June 1943

Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was in attendance at the 1918 ceremony, receiving an honorary degree. Roosevelt delivered an address on the Sunday before Commencement, during an open-air religious service. The open-air service continued to be a part of the events held on the Sunday before Commencement in following years, including commencements held during World War II. However, the commencement of 1942 marked a change in the configuration of the commencement weekend schedule: the commencement ceremony was moved from Monday morning to Sunday afternoon, following the open-air service. Commencement of 1942 was also planned to take place four weeks earlier than previous ceremonies had been, due to the increasing demand for accelerated academic programs for men who wished to complete their education before going overseas to fight in the war. In addition to the spring commencement ceremony, a mid-winter graduation was added to the academic calendar for the first time in the College’s history in order to award degrees to the thirty seniors who wished to leave the College early to join the armed forces. These men were able to graduate early due to accelerated academic sessions in conjunction with Wesleyan University that were offered in the summer of 1942. Another commencement ceremony was held at the end of the following semester, with only 60 graduates. A similar accelerated degree program was offered the following year, with two commencements held in February and June of 1944. The accelerated program allowed students to graduate from the College at the end of any of the three sessions (Fall, Winter, Summer) held throughout the year, which significantly fragmented the graduating classes and made for slightly less ceremony and decorum at commencement ceremonies while the program was popular during the WWII years. During these ceremonies, as in the commencements undertaken during the first World War, several degrees were conferred in absentia.

The tradition of seniors touching the Book at graduation was reinstated later in Trinity's history by President G. Keith Funston in 1947. Several of today’s commencement traditions were first instated during the latter half of the 20th century. Trinity’s Alma Mater, “’Neath The Elms” has been sung during the Order of Exercises beginning with the spring ceremony of 1944. Another tradition adopted around this time which is sustained today was the singing of the National Anthem, begun in 1949. The “Charge to the Graduating Class,” a lecture addressed directly to the seniors at commencement, has been a part of the Order of Exercises since 1944 and has been either delivered by the president of the College or a guest speaker.

Commencement from 1950-present

The mace, carried by a student mace-bearer during the academic procession, became a part of the commencement ceremony in 1950. The presidential collar also became a part of the commencement ritual around this time.

Trinity's first women graduates, 1970. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

The first women to receive Baccalaureate degrees from Trinity graduated at the commencement ceremony of 1970 after the undergraduate program was officially made co-ed in the fall of 1969. Judith Dworin (B.A. American Studies), Judith Ann Laughton Odlum (B.A. Modern Languages), Elizabeth Martin Gallo (B.A. Psychology), and Roberta Joy Russell (B.A. English) were the first four women to receive degrees from Trinity. In 1973, Trinity celebrated its 150th anniversary, recalling how “In 1827, Trinity’s first graduating class had 14 students–all men. This year, the graduating class included 265 males and 121 females, and was the first class in which the women had spent all four years at Trinity since the college went coeducational in 1969.”

Commencement, 2021. Photo credit: The Trinity Reporter, Fall 2021

In the spring of 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, in-person commencement was postponed until the spring of 2021 and the graduating seniors participated in a virtual Baccalaureate program. In a tribute video recorded by the administration, President Joanne Berger-Sweeney assured the seniors that “Today’s activities are in no way intended to replace a traditional commencement ceremony, but we couldn’t let today pass without marking the completion of the academic year and celebrating you, our graduating students.” The following year, Commencement proceeded in-person as planned in two consecutive ceremonies to reduce crowd density.

Commencement 2024 marked the end of Trinity’s Bicentennial year and the 198th Commencement Ceremony.