2006: By the numbers

Number of graduates:

1,015	Undergraduates
147	Graduate School, Reynolda Campus
34	Graduate School, Bowman Gray Campus
178	School of Law
299	Babcock Graduate School of Management
97	School of Medicine
47	Physician Assistant Program
32	Divinity School

4	Number of graduates in first graduating class, 1839
1	Number of graduates in 1843
20	Number of graduates in the Divinity School’s first graduating class, in 2002

Honorary degrees:

4	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:

10,000

Number of chairs set up on Hearn Plaza

50′ x 100′

Size of striped tent

48	Number of man-hours to set-up 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)
1966	First year Commencement was held on the Quad (from 1957 to 1965 Commencement was held in Wait Chapel)

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

10,500	Number of printed programs
1	Number of graduates accidentally left out of last year’s program
5	Number of programs reprinted with that graduates’ name included
36	Consecutive years Sun Printing Company of Winston-Salem has printed the Commencement program

47	Number of University police and security officers on duty during Commencement
18	Number of Winston-Salem police officers and Forsyth County sheriff deputies on duty
18	Number of contract security officers on duty
14	Number of paramedics on hand

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.