Class Day typically took place in the week before Commencement and included orations by several members of the graduating class. The day would start with the Ivy Oration and the Ivy Poem. Each class used to plant its own ivy next to a building (right) and the Ivy Oration and the Ivy Poem served as its dedication.
Said Malcolm Malconian (Class of 1907) in his Ivy Oration a century ago, "Amherst has planted in our hearts, ivies of character, ivies of ideals and ivies of friendships. We are the husbandmen of these vines planted in our souls. Four years at College will be wasted if we do not take good care of these ivies and cause them to grow into our character."
Clinton Powell (1907) said in his Ivy Poem that same year, "This Ivy, young and strong in power potential, As even we transplanted from Our childhood's home, and placed at college To live and grow, absorbing wisdom, power, And all the virtues in the after years Shall keep us always good and strong and true."
Class day also included a Senior Oration, a Class Poem and a Grove Oration, which took place on what is now the Freshman Quad (pictured above), so named because the quad was cluttered with trees and called the Grove before the great hurricane of 1938.
In the most recent incarnations of Class Day, several senior speakers delivered their own orations reflecting on their time at Amherst and the College would award the larger student prizes and present the Phebe and Zephaniah Swift Moore Awards to distinguished secondary school teachers nominated by members of the graduating class. The College decided this year to eliminate Class Day in order to allow more time for seniors to hear the addresses of the honorary degree recipients. The senior orations were moved to the Senior Assembly, which took place on the last day of classes, and the awards traditionally granted on Class Day will be presented at Commencement.
Amherst is one of few colleges that does not invite an outside speaker to address its graduates at Commencement. Rather, the external honorary degree recipients offer lectures the day before. Long-standing Amherst tradition dictates that the president of the College and a student elected by the class are the only speakers at Commencement, implying that the ceremony is about the graduates and the College's mission.
Amherst remains one of very few colleges to still use sheepskin diplomas (below), and has done so since its first Commencement. Almost all the diplomas were sheepskin, aside from the half-dozen paper diplomas requested by people citing animal rights concerns. In 2001, Professor of Philosophy Alexander George and Veggie, the College's vegetarian club, circulated a petition signed by professors and students that he delivered to former President Tom Gerety requesting the College abolish the sheepskin practice in favor of the more humanitarian paper.
After polling the Class of 2001, Gerety concluded that the College would offer graduating students a choice between sheepskin and paper. Although the number of students choosing paper has increased now that it is given as an option on equal footing, the vast majority of students still prefer the traditional sheepskin. Only 37 of the 381 members of the original Class of 2007 graduating on Sunday have chosen to receive paper diplomas.
The academic procession that prefaces the Commencement Exercises is headed by the Sheriff of Hampshire County Robert Garvey and the Faculty Marshal (right). In the latter position, Professor of Black Studies and Fine Arts Rowland Abiodun will replace Professor of Psychology Rose Olver, the College's first female faculty member who has served as Faculty Marshal since she was elected to the position in 1993.
Brian Boyle '69 will follow Garvey and Abiodun in the procession as this year's Honorary Marshal. The position is traditionally given to an alumnus with a son or daughter in the graduating class. According to a College press release, the Marshal "bears a ceremonial mace, a symbol of order and authority," in the academic procession. Boyle's daughter is Alexandra Boyle, who is profiled in this issue of The Amherst Student. The faculty and honorary marshals also assist with distributing diplomas and canes to graduates.
You may wonder why seniors are given a class cane after they receive their diplomas at Commencement. The practice is a revival of the College tradition of each class carrying its own unique cane. In the 19th century, each freshman class would design its own emblem to go on top hats and canes they would receive as sophomores (pictured above). The tradition gave each class its own identity and distinguished upperclassmen from first-years. In 2002, seniors on the Friends of the Amherst College Library Student Activities Committee-Jose Abad '03, Benjamin Baum '03 and Ciona van Dijk '03-advocated the restoration of the age-old tradition. This came after Abad had noticed the canes in old class photographs while working in the library's archives over the summer.
With the support of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS), the goal of reviving canes became reality as every member of the Class of 2003 and all honorary degree recipients were given a class cane at Commencement that year. The tradition continues to this day.