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) |