Georgetown University's commencement has evolved significantly from its beginning a two-person graduation in 1817. Today, each school hosts its own commencement ceremony.
Early commencements
Georgetown University held its first commencement in July of 1817 with the graduation of two students, Charles and George Dinnies. Previously, Georgetown had hosted end of year public exhibitions where students completed oral examinations in various subjects as Georgetown was unable to confer degrees until it received its Congressional charter in 1815. The 1817 ceremony, held in late July, involved both a graduation exercise, with music from the United States Marine Band, and a demonstration of the students’ ability to communicate effectively via speeches, plays, and formal recitations.
In the years that followed, Georgetown’s commencement evolved into a formal community event. Hundreds of guests including cabinet officers, ambassadors, and dignitaries would assemble in Old North which was adorned with vines and flowers. Beginning with President John Quincy Adams, presidents regularly attended to distribute diplomas.1
Features of early commencements
The student oration component of commencement featured classical works as well as student speeches on timely topics. In 1848, following the end of the Mexican-American War, speeches included the “Romance of America” and the “Star Spangled Banner.” In 1850, amidst a national discussion on territorial settlement, speeches included “The Mission of America,” “California,” and “The Union.”2
The commencement ceremonies soon grew notoriously long, spanning hours in the heat and humidity of Washington, DC in late July. In 1821, the commencement featured an original two act drama in the style of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” an address in Greek, two Latin poems, a French soliloquy, a series of English poems and speeches, all before the distribution of degrees and prizes.3
Before the temperance movement gained ground, students were actually given a “weak mint sling” to tide them over before marching two by two behind the faculty into the hall. 4In 1832, the college diarist recorded a six hour commencement about which “there was no one who did not complain,” but nothing was done to shorten the ceremony.5
Other degrees and commencements
In 1843, in addition to its own graduates, the University began conferring degrees to the graduates of the College of Holy Cross. Georgetown continued to confer degrees to Holy Cross graduates until 1865 when the state of Massachusetts finally granted Holy Cross a charter.
In 1852, the Medical Department held its first commencement exercises in a joint ceremony with the College. But with the medical diplomas already mailed, the medical students graduated with little recognition, and the Medical Department proceeded to host its own independent commencement ceremonies at the Smithsonian. 6In June of 1872, the Law Department began hosting its first commencement exercises.7
Prizes and honorary degrees
In 1875, with Georgetown prioritizing a new focus on science, mathematics, and history, President Patrick Healy announced the endowment of special prizes including one for best historical essay, one in mathematics, and another in natural philosophy or physics. Georgetown awarded these medals alongside degrees at the year end commencement ceremonies which now ran under two hours. United States presidents and political or religious dignitaries continued to preside over, and distribute degrees at, commencement. While Georgetown had conferred its first honorary degree in 1828, an LL.D to Judge John Luke Taylor of the North Carolina Supreme Court,8 conferring honorary degrees became a regular practice in the 1870s.9
Commencement in the wake of World War I
In 1919, the University spent a portion of the commencement exercises dedicating and planting fifty-four memorial poplar trees to honor the alumni who had given their lives in service during WWI. During wartime, colleges and universities around the country also struggled to procure the sheepskin necessary for diplomas and made do with high grade cardboard. But in 1920, Georgetown seniors rejoiced at the return of sheepskin diplomas and the introduction of an engraved leather covered program. The program included eight photographs, a list of the graduates from the four departments — College, Medical, Law, and Dentistry — and the schedule for commencement festivities.10
Growth of commencement
By 1920, the University’s commencement exercises stretched over several days. The 1921 Commencement Weekend began on a Saturday evening with the Alumni Smoker. The following morning was the Baccalaureate Mass followed by an evening reception and concert in Dahlgren Quad. On Monday evening, the faculty hosted a banquet after which moving pictures of the recent graduating classes were shown. Wednesday began with the Salutatory, the Medicine Oration, the Dental Oration, and the Class Ode, before the 1921 Commencement Exercises concluded that evening with the delivery of the Cohonguroton Address.11
In 1922, the University graduated a record number of students with more than 500 degrees conferred on the Class of 1922. Graduates included eighty from the College, 250 from the Law Center, thirty from the School of Medicine, twenty-five from the Dental School, and more than a hundred from School of Foreign Service. Because of the large number of graduating law students, the Law Center held its commencement exercises separately. The other professional schools combined their exercises with the College. 12In 1923, the Law Center continued to hold its commencement exercises independent of the University’s other departments.13
As the number of graduating students increased, commencement exercises outgrew Old North. Gaston Hall opened in 1879 just in time to host that year's commencement exercises. Commencement remained in Gaston Hall for several years before moving to Healy Lawn. In 1933, Commencement moved again, this time to the newly constructed White Gravenor esplanade which was lit up by floodlights for the evening exercises.14
End of unified undergraduate commencement
In 1981, graduating students spent the commencement exercises spraying one another with champagne in what then University president Fr. Timothy Healy regarded as an unbecoming display of status and privilege. The incident sparked a serious administrative discussion about dividing the ceremony by school in order to give graduating students more individualized attention. The undergraduate students protested, and after they “emphatically requested one commencement for the whole student body,” the University continued to hold a single ceremony on Healy Lawn.15
In 1987, after a brawl broke out among the graduating students, the VIP section was sprayed by champagne, and guest speaker Sarah Caldwell was unable to finish her speech, the University officially ended the unified undergraduate commencement ceremony.16 In 2000, the University created Senior Convocation to supplement the individual undergraduate commencement ceremonies and provide a space for all graduating seniors to gather and celebrate with University faculty and staff.17
Modern commencement schedule
In recent years, Georgetown University has scheduled the individual school’s ceremonies as follows during Commencement Weekend: the McCourt School of Public Policy on Thursday afternoon, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences on Friday morning, the McDonough School of Business and the School of Continuing Studies on Friday afternoon, the Georgetown College, the School of Nursing and Health Studies and the School of Foreign Service on Saturday, the School of Medicine on Sunday morning, and the Law Center on Sunday afternoon.
Commencement controversies
With more than 200 years of commencements, the University has experienced its share of commencement controversies over the years.
While champagne was not uncommon at University commencement ceremonies, the 1981 ceremony displayed an unprecedented level of debauchery and excess. After University graduates doused each other in champagne, then president Fr. Healy threatened to cancel commencement for the next three years, arguing that “shouting upper-middle-class white kids demonstrating their social status by spraying the landscape with champagne, make an image that no one wants attached to this University.” Commencement was not canceled, but Fr. Healy did begin a serious discussion about segregating the graduations in order to create a more personal experience for the graduates.
Debauchery returned in full force at the University’s 1987 Commencement. One student described the ceremony as follows, “It was really sick. There were people getting in fights. Three people had to go to the emergency room to get stitches. There was champagne everywhere.”18 Boston Opera Director Sarah Caldwell was in the middle of her commencement speech when a fight broke out among graduating seniors, and the seniors’ champagne sprays doused the VIPs sitting on the Commencement platform. Letters from angry parents and alumni in attendance flooded the president’s office.
When Cardinal Francis Arinze took the podium at the College’s 2003 commencement ceremony, he delivered a controversial sermon rather than a traditional commencement speech. The Cardinal preached about a world where family was under threat: “It is opposed by anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. It is scorned and banalized by pornography; desecrated by fornication and adultery; mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut into two by divorce.”19 During the speech, one professor stood up and walked out of the ceremony, as did several students. Two days later, History Professor Tommaso Astarita drafted a “letter of concern” signed by more than seventy faculty members asking the University to make an explicit commitment to inclusiveness. The following September, President DeGioia formally responded to Cardinal Arinze’s speech, and assured students and faculty that the University remained committed to full inclusiveness.20
In 2011, a spelling error plagued the thousands of printed commencement books with Georgetown University written as “Georgetown Univeristy.” The ill-timed typo gained a national audience with coverage by both The Atlantic and NPR, but the Registrar sent a formal apology and promised corrected copies for any interested party21, 22
Commencement during COVID-19
In 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the University to move learning online, the University announced that commencement would be postponed “to a time in which we can safely convene as a community.”23For the first time in history, the University was unable to host an in person commencement. Instead, the 2020 Commencement ceremony was a virtual Conferral of Degrees broadcasted on Georgetown University’s Facebook page. Live-streamed by 6,000, the twenty-five minute ceremony, included a montage of advice from prominent alumni and an address by President John DeGioia and received more than 37,000 comments. 24The University managed to arrange in-person commencement ceremonies at Nationals Park for the Class of 2021, with a morning ceremony for students earning bachelor’s degrees and an afternoon ceremony for those who earned graduate and professional degrees.25
- 1Emmett Curran, Robert. “The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University, 1789–1889.” 1993, pp.207-08.
- 2 Id. at 208.
- 3“Georgetown Commencements Seventy Years Ago.” The College Journal. Vol. 16, No. 10. July 1888. pp.119-20.
- 4“The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University, 1789–1889.” p.208.
- 5Id.
- 6Id. at pp.148-49.
- 7“The Second Student of Georgetown” The College Journal. Vol. 1, No. 6. May 1873. p.55.
- 8“The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University, 1789–1889.” 1993, p.208.
- 9Id. at 300.
- 10“Faculty Planning for Commencement: Graduates of 1920 Are Assured of Fine Send Off.” The Hoya. 25 March 1920. p.7.
- 11 “Plans Being Formed for Commencement.” The Hoya. 12 May 1921 p.3.
- 12“More than 500 to Graduate.” The Hoya. 25 May 1922. p.1.
- 13“Graduation Plans Are Announced.” The Hoya. 17 May 1923. p.2.
- 14“Gravenor Building.” The Hoya. 3 May 1933. p.15.
- 15 Georgetown University (Washington, DC), Ye Domesday Booke, 1983, p. 94.
- 16 “The 1987 Commencement Debacle: Administration Will Try to Prevent a Repeat Performance.” Georgetown’s Blue and Gray. Oct. 1987, p.11.
- 17Nash, Emily. “GU to Hold Unified Commencement Ceremony.” The Hoya. 12 Nov. 1999.
- 18“The 1987 Commencement Debacle: Administration Will Try to Prevent a Repeat Performance.” Georgetown’s Blue and Gray. Oct. 1987, p.11.
- 19“The College Alienated.” The Georgetown Voice. 21 August 2003.
- 20"Timiraos, Nick. “DeGioia Responds to Arinze Address.” The Hoya. 9 Sept. 2003.
- 21Seghal, Ujala. “Georgetown ‘Univeristy’ Flubs Spelling at Commencement.” The Atlantic. 22 May 2011.
- 22“Georgetown Graduates Thousands of Students During Commencement.” GU Commencement.
- 23“No more pencils, no more books?: Examples of threats to instructional continuity on campus and how Georgetown responded to them.” Georgetown University Library, Online Exhibitions.
- 24Coffey, Skyler. “Class of 2020 Graduates Virtually.” The Georgetown Voice. 21 May 2020.
- 25 Anderson, Nick. “Georgetown University to Hold Pandemic Commencement at Nationals Park.” The Washington Post. 22 April 21.
