Adam Epstein '05

My good friend William Herbert ‘05 prepared a guest blog related to Commencement which will be held next Saturday, May 16. I thought it would be a nice change of pace from the usually Admissions related posts. To follow all things Commencement related, check out @WPICommencement on Twitter.

Now that the last day of classes has passed a whole host of rituals are being observed in preparation for the 141^st Commencement on Saturday, May 16.

The most visible of these is the preparation of campus for the thousands of students, families, friends, faculty, and staff that will be on campus for Commencement. Behind the scenes, the Registrar, Faculty, and Trustees go through the formal processes that enables the primary purpose of Commencement: the awarding of degrees.

The Registrar is the first step. This portion of the process is the most complex as it involves hundreds of students. Everyone will have one or more majors, some may have minors, and some will merit distinction or high distinction. The transcript of every student will need to be compared against the degree requirements set by the university for all students (2/3 unit social science, 8 units in residency, 1/3 unit physical education among others for undergraduates) as well as the major specific requirements set by the academic departments and the faculty. Grades for D-Term and the spring semester are not due to the registrar until the close of business on Friday, May 8 which means the Registrar’s Office has less than one week to prepare this list! Once all grades are turned in, a list is prepared in time for the faculty meeting the following Thursday.

The Faculty will hold its last meeting of the academic year on the Thursday before Commencement, May 14. At this meeting, the Committee on Academic Operations will make a motion to approve the undergraduate graduation list (as provided by the Registrar).  The Committee on Graduate Studies and Research makes a similar motion to approve the graduate graduation list. The list then passes on to its last stop, the Trustees.

WPI’s Board of Trustees will hold its annual meeting on Friday, May 15. Among other business that will be conducted, the graduation list, as provided by the Registrar and recommended by the Faculty, will be voted on by the Trustees.

Only after passing through this process can a student be presented with a degree at Commencement. The degree received is signed by Donald Peterson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Dennis Berkey, President of WPI.

May 1 has come and gone which means we now have a pretty good picture of who will join the WPI community in the Class of 2013! Congratulations and welcome! Unfortunately, it is still a bit too early to tell with certainty whether we’ll be able to offer admission to students on the wait list, but at this point the class looks to be full.

I’ll be posting information here, on Facebook, and on the Class of 2013 Web site over the summer for the incoming class, and keep an eye on your e-mail as well for important information. Soon you’ll be able to register for classes and create your WPI e-mail address (you get to choose it, and you have up to 16 characters—start thinking)! If you have not already done so, you should complete the housing form for first-year students.

I tweeted last week that as May 1 approached, it was not the day towards which I work. Sure, it’s a milestone and (hopefully) cause for celebration and a bit of relaxation after months of hard work and building relationships, but really it’s only a stepping stone. I hope to continue the relationships I’ve built with the enrolling students and their families over the next several years and see them walk across the stage at Commencement in four years and 10 or so days. That’s the real goal.

Congratulations to the newest members of the WPI community in the Class of 2013, and congratulations to the Class of 2009 whose last day of undergraduate classes is today! Commencement is in only 11 days!