unendurably long if the class were large, since each graduate delivered an oration and there might also be inaugural addresses by new professors as well. In the late ’50’s the young ladies from the Female Seminary developed the custom of throwing bouquets from the gallery of the church to the College seniors as each concluded his oration. Some of the floral tributes landed on the heads of the honorable and reverend guests who sat on the platform. The girls’ poor aim had an element of danger as well as humor since bouquets were sometimes weighted with stones.
In 1852, the University began granting Master of Arts degrees, in course, to alumni who engaged in literary pursuits at least three years after graduation. Students completing the Seminary course also received the A.M. provided they already had an A.B. For those who took the shorter course consisting of selected subjects from all three departments of the University, the Bachelor of Philosophy degree was instituted in 1856. The diploma fee was five dollars which presumably included the cost of the slim tin tube in which the parchment was rolled.
Commencement visitors in 1851 rejoiced to find the University in a prospering state after the Removal question had been settled. Those who came in 1852 mourned the loss of Daniel Hascall who had died only recently. To enliven the program in 1854, the seniors hired a brass band to lead the commencement procession and provide music during the exercises. The faculty opposed this innovation and its reappearance was delayed until 1866.
Class customs at commencement were not inaugurated until 1865 when the seniors staged a Class Day similar to those observed at other colleges. Their president conducted the outdoor exercises which consisted of the traditional oration, history, poem, prophecy, and farewells from representatives of the three lower classes, followed by the planting of the class tree, each senior throwing a shovelful of earth on the roots. In 1866 the seniors introduced a new feature on the evening of Class Day-“a comic funeral of the pony, on which the class had ridden through the classics.”
The Alumni Society meetings during commencement week were devoted chiefly to reminiscences of undergraduate days and pledges of loyalty to the University. The speeches, usually impromptu, were often witty and amusing but sometimes they got prosy and dull. Class
