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) |