It was over in a matter of hours, but it took nearly 12 months to plan BU’s 142nd Commencement, where approximately 5,000 seniors and graduate students received degrees. All told, some 6,622 degrees were awarded. The three-day celebration was marked by more than 230 events and 50 diploma convocations.

An estimated crowd of 20,000 family members, faculty, alumni, and friends participated, with assistance from more than 400 University staff members who volunteered during Sunday’s All-Commencement ceremony at Nickerson Field.

A quick look at the numbers tells you why the annual event takes almost a year to coordinate. Grounds crews planted more than 150,000 annuals around campus in the weeks leading up to the big day. About 40,000 chairs had to be set up and taken down throughout the weekend. More than 10,400 hats were distributed to offer guests some protection from the sun. And then there’s the food and drink that has to be prepared. In all, 10,000 gallons of coffee, punch, and bottled water and another 5,900 gallons of other liquid refreshments were consumed. About 33,500 finger sandwiches were served over three days (stacked end to end, they’d be 46 times higher than Warren Towers), and 53,787 hors d’oeuvres were prepared, a whopping 8,068,050 calories worth. (Add to that the 5,700 dozen cookies and the 4,000 dozen scones and muffins made from scratch and you get a sense of how hard the folks in Dining Services alone have to work to pull off Commencement.)

In fact, Dining Services employees alone  worked a total of more than 18,000 man-hours over Commencement Weekend, roughly equivalent to the amount of time the average BU student has spent in class from first grade through college.

Phil Zekos can be reached at pzekos@bu.edu.