2009: By the numbers

Number of graduates:

(includes May graduates only; does not include Dec. and Aug. 2008 graduates)

941	Undergraduates
150	Graduate School, both campuses
159	School of Law
108	Babcock Graduate School of Management
152	School of Medicine (including Physician Assistant Studies)
22	Divinity School

4	Number of graduates in first graduating class, 1839
1	Number of graduates in 1843
1964	First black graduate, Edward Reynolds
20	Number of graduates in the Divinity School’s first graduating class, in 2002

Honorary degrees:

8	Number of honorary degrees awarded
11	Number of honorary degrees awarded in 1934, the most ever
1849	Year first honorary degree was awarded, to Wake Forest founder and first president Samuel Wait

Other information:

12,000	Number of chairs set up on Hearn Plaza
50′ x 100′	Size of striped tent
1989	Year a rain and wind storm knocked down the tent the night before Graduation; the program proceeded on schedule, without a tent
3	Number of times rain has forced Commencement inside (1991, 1983, 1973)
1	Number of times Commencement has been held off campus (1991, Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum)
1957	First class to graduate on the “new” campus
1966	First year Commencement was held on the Quad (from 1957 to 1965 Commencement was held in Wait Chapel)

2.5 hrs	Approximate length of Commencement ceremony
2 hrs	Length of Commencement speech delivered in 1858 by Solomon Sampson Satchwell

10,000	Number of printed programs
39	Consecutive years Sun Printing Company of Winston-Salem has printed the Commencement program

8,500	Number of bottles of water distributed in 1993, when temperatures soared to the high 90s during the ceremony
52°F	Temperature during the ceremony in 1999 (plus a cool, rainy mist)

1987	Last class to graduate under the elms before the last of the diseased elm trees were removed and replaced with ash trees.
1981	Last class to receive sheepskin diplomas
$40	Cost of an optional sheepskin diploma in 1982
1975	First woman and first black, U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan (D-Texas), to speak at Commencement
2	Number of black women who have spoken at Commencement (Barbara Jordan, 1975, and Maya Angelou, 1985)
2	Number of times Bill Moyers has given the Commencement address (1970 and 1984)