For the first time since 2019, a 乐播传媒 senior class will march as one from Alumni Walk to the Historic Quad to celebrate their graduation from 乐播传媒 College.
This year鈥檚 Commencement, the college鈥檚 156th, begins at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 29.
In 2020, Commencement was a fully virtual ceremony due to the pandemic. In 2021, reflecting physical distancing guidelines, 乐播传媒 offered two ceremonies with restricted attendance, one for last names A鈥揔 in the morning and the second for L鈥揨 in the afternoon.
This year, while some basic COVID-19 public health guidelines are in place, the ceremony is open to all and will probably look something like this scene from 2019 鈥� whether or not it rains, as the ceremony is now held outdoors rain or shine.
How do I watch the livestream?
Commencement will be livestreamed on the 乐播传媒 website, and also on the , featuring a four-camera setup that will provide a variety of perspectives on the festive event.
The livestream starts around 9:30 a.m. with the arrival of the academic procession, led by mace bearer Michael Murray, Phillips Professor of Economics, to the traditional setting at Coram Library.
What do we know about the senior class?
There are 498 members of the 乐播传媒 Class of 2022 participating in Commencement, representing 39 U.S. states, including D.C., and 40 nations.聽
- 50 seniors are from Maine (10%), consistent with prior years.
- 59 seniors are first-generation-to-college (11.8%)聽.
- 370 seniors have a single major.
- 127 seniors have a double major (25.5%).
- 1 senior has a triple major.
- 35 completed honors theses (one, Emma Christman ’22 of Litchfield, Maine, received honors in both biology and geology with one thesis).
- 45 (8.9%) studied abroad for a semester or year (a figure that would be closer to 60 percent pre-pandemic).
- 199 seniors earned a varsity letter (40%), in keeping with prior years.
- 10 seniors have received Fulbright Student award offers for 2022鈥�23.
- One senior, Essie Martin, has received a Truman Scholarship.
Who is the Commencement speaker?
Dr. Nirav D. Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is this year鈥檚 speaker, joining three fellow honorary degree recipients.
Shah is not your average state epidemiologist. As COVID-19 barreled into the state in 2020, he became something of a phenomenon, providing guidance, information, and leadership. Displaying an uncanny ability to deliver comfort while never ducking the reality at hand, he led daily media briefings, notable for their civility and mutual respect, joined public radio call-in shows, and convened Zoom discussions with community leaders.
Perhaps more challenging, he successfully made , where he has 30,000 followers (gulp, more than double 乐播传媒鈥� followers, and we鈥檝e been around since 1855, while he鈥檚 only been around since 1977).
The Facebook page 鈥淔ans of Dr. Nirav Shah鈥� 鈥� created by admirers and not affiliated with Shah 鈥� has 39,000 members. (What other CDC director would make a dad joke around Christmas noting that Santa Claus was vaccinated and thus had 鈥渟antibodies鈥�?)
So, how deft and witting are Dr. Shah tweets?
Here are two.
- Back in 2014, Gwyneth Paltrow infamously referred to her separation from husband Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay, as “conscious uncoupling.” In April, Shah dropped that iconic pop-culture phrase into a tweet as he educated Mainers on how COVID-19 infections were rising, yet hospitalizations weren’t.
2. He shared this quote attributed to the Danish philosopher S酶ren Kierkegaard to underscore the near impossibility of accurately identifying and confirming trends while in the midst of a pandemic.
Who is the senior speaker?
This year, Teresa Chico 鈥�22, a double major in rhetoric, film, and screen studies and in Africana from New York City, will deliver the senior address.
Chico says that she became something of a 鈥減lant person” while at 乐播传媒. She will use her experiences with two plants 鈥� a sturdy, low-maintenance pothos and a more 鈥渄ramatic鈥� Chinese money plant鈥� as a metaphor for her route through 乐播传媒.
What Commencement elements return this year?
After a streamlined version last year, the college鈥檚 traditional inside-out academic procession returns in full force.
The procession assembles on Alumni Walk. The first group to depart is the seniors, followed by the faculty, the college鈥檚 deans and vice presidents, and then the mace bearer, who leads the platform party of President Clayton Spencer, the honorary degree recipients, and faculty marshals.
Mostly out of sight of the crowd gathered at Coram, the seniors and the faculty come to a halt and step off the pathways, allowing the mace bearer and platform party to parade through them. Then, in a maneuver known as 鈥渟kinning the cat鈥� 鈥� like turning a sock inside out 鈥� the faculty at the end of the procession fall in behind the platform party, then the seniors fall in behind the faculty.
The maneuver allows the mace bearer and his team to be the last to depart Alumni Walk and the first to arrive at Coram, plus allows the faculty to parade past the seniors, and generally provides a bit of 鈥渢he last shall be first鈥� variety to the procession. (Granted, there might be less complex ways of achieving this, and the origins of this maneuver are not clear.)
What鈥檚 new about this year鈥檚 Commencement?
There’s one change to college policy, and one transition in a professor鈥檚 career.
For the first time, and reflecting the disruption caused by the pandemic, 乐播传媒 will welcome seniors to participate in Commencement who do not yet have the credits required to graduate.
At the conclusion of this year鈥檚 ceremony, mace bearer Michael Murray, the Charles Franklin Phillips Professor of Economics, will quite literally hand off his duties, an honor he鈥檚 had since 2016 as the senior member of the faculty. He retires this spring.
As Murray leads the platform party from the Coram porch, he will pause and hand the mace to his successor, Professor of French and Francophone Studies Mary Rice-DeFosse.
The college鈥檚 10th mace bearer since the tradition was born in 1949, Rice-DeFosse will be the first in her department and first woman to carry the mace. When she arrived at 乐播传媒 in 1984, one day serving as the mace bearer wasn’t on her mind. “It’s an unexpected honor,” Rice-DeFosse says.
In 1984, only one of the 32 full professors was a woman, Ann Scott, now Dana Professor Emerita of Music. Today, the gender balance among full professors is nearly 50鈥�50. 鈥淲e鈥檝e come a long way since those days,鈥� Rice-DeFosse says.
She notes that she鈥檒l be one of the shorter mace bearers in recent times, quipping, 鈥淚 hope that I measure up!鈥�
