Every year a new class of seniors walks across the stage at Commencement to receive its diplomas. Despite a different class leaving, the traditions stay the same each year.
The school has worked hard to ensure the Elon experience comes full circle, starting with New Student Convocation and ending with Commencement. This involves one of the most well-known Commencement traditions: the giving of the oak saplings.
According to George Troxler, professor emeritus of history and official Elon University historian, this tradition began in 1992 when President J. Fred Young took the idea from the year before, when the Commencement speaker gave out redwood saplings. President Leo Lambert took this idea a step further by giving freshman their acorns during Convocation.
“At Elon we did something this way and this is why,” Troxler said. “That’s a tradition. It is only an oak sapling tradition because the oak has special meaning to the school. Elon is Hebrew for oak.”
During Convocation, the new freshmen exit the ceremony by walking past Elon’s faculty, a sign of support of the university and what is to come. This trend is repeated at Commencement, where students leave Jordan Gym and once again walk by the faculty to say their final goodbyes to their advisers and past instructors.
These two traditions form connections between students’ years at Elon and the end of their time here.
Despite its growing size, the university has also made an effort to hold a graduation ceremony that includes the entire class. Each student has his or her name called by Lambert and receives his or her diploma on the spot. This tradition creates one last feeling of togetherness.
“It represents that people matter and that people are important,” Troxler said. “It is a sense of community, that you really matter. Things might not stay this way forever, but we want to hold onto this for as long as possible.”
Elon also represents all nationalities of the senior class. Starting in the 1990s, the university chose to display the flag of each international student in the class as well as the American flag — bringing the class together into one unified body.
The university has tried to tie the Commencement speaker to Elon since 2002. This person meets with students privately in the Jordan Gym to prepare them for the ceremony.
“It is usually an alumni, faculty member or parent that will make the speech,” Troxler said. “It ties the Commencement to the school. We prefer to get the big-name speakers for the convocations instead.”
To lead the ceremony each year, the senior member of the faculty will carry a handcrafted, 40-inch long staff called the mace. It represents leadership and professionalism and is meant to leave students with this ideology for their years to come.
Elon’s graduation traditions leave a certain mark on the school.
“There is something distinctive about an Elon education, as I hope for everyone,” Troxler said. “Tradition is important because we want this to be distinctive at Elon. We didn’t take the normal way of doing a graduation and copy it. We made it specific to our school and specific to our students.”