Officials expect commencement to run like 'clockwork'

To the members of the class of 2005, commencement is the culmination of four years of academic labors into 90 minutes of pomp and ceremony. But conferring degrees to nearly 7,000 students in only two 90 minute ceremonies means that the event must run like clockwork and be planned to a T. \n"The glue that holds the whole ceremony together is that it's all scripted," said Bill Elliott, the director of University ceremonies. "That is one of the reasons that it works so well." \nElliott said that in the six ceremonies he has helped organize on the Bloomington campus, there have been no disasters or breakdowns to speak of. \nIn order to keep graduation from running too long and packing too many students, faculty and spectators into Assembly Hall, commencement is broken into two nearly identical ceremonies -- one at 10 a.m. and one at 3 p.m. Roughly the same number of students graduate in the morning as in the afternoon, Elliott said.\nStudents will begin lining up in the Gladstein Fieldhouse about an hour-and-a-half before the ceremony begins. They will assemble with other students from their school so that each school will have students sitting in one designed section for commencement. After the students are in line, they will begin their march into Assembly Hall. This should start about 45 minutes before the ceremony begins, Elliott said.\n"Watching the students process in, like a sporting event, you see the place fill up and the anticipation level climbs," he said.\nThe faculty, dressed in their multicolored academic regalia, file into their seats when the last student sits down. \nThe final procession is that of the platform party, made up of the top University administrators and the board of trustees. Leading these men and women is the grand marshal, Edwin Marshall, wearing white robes and bearing the jewel-encrusted IU Mace.\nMarshall said amid all of the ceremony, his favorite part is seeing the anticipation in the eyes of students and family members sitting in the audience as he leads the administrators to their place in the commencement.\n"To watch the colorful processional of faculty and students and the pride that exists within all of those involved is amazing," he said.\nWhile all of the parties are parading to their seats, the commencement band, led by Stephen Pratt, the director of bands, will play a rotation of music. \n"For the processional we try to find music that is dignified and music that would represent good walking music," said Pratt.\nIncluded in the 57 member band's repertoire is Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance."\n"Most people are only familiar with 'Pomp and Circumstance' number one," he said. "We'll be playing all four movements."\nRoughly 25 minutes into the ceremony, Herbert will give his commencement speech and charge to the class of 2005, Elliott said. Herbert's speech should last 10 to 12 minutes.\nFollowing Herbert's speech, the deans of each school will present the students for the conferral of degrees. Only doctoral students in each school will actually get to walk across the stage. All other students will simply stand with the rest of the students in their school to be recognized for a degree. \nWhen each dean has presented the degree candidates for conferral, Herbert will return to the stage to officially confer the degrees to the students.\n"The president will ask the students to turn the tassels on their caps," Elliott said. "That indicates that the students are officially graduates."\nAfter the degrees are made official, all attendees will remain seated for the singing of the alma mater. \nOnce the platform party and the faculty recess out of Assembly Hall, commencement is over, Elliott said. \n"One of the things that we would ask of both students and parents is that they respect the ceremony itself and that they respect the meaning and symbolism of the ceremony," he said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.