2018 Commencement: Over in the Blink of an Eye
Time-lapse video captures setup and tear down on Nickerson Field
It takes a year of precision planning to pull off Commencement each year. The logistics are daunting. This past weekend, BU hosted some 200 events, including more than 50 different diploma Convocations and ceremonies, attended by an estimated 57,977 people—the equivalent of filling Harry Agganis Arena eight times. On May 20 alone, about 20,000 guests filed onto Nickerson Field to watch as degrees were conferred on 7,072 students during the University’s 145th All-University Commencement.
This year’s ceremony began 20 minutes ahead of schedule, in anticipation of the thunderstorms forecast for Sunday afternoon. Happily, the rain held off and everything proceeded like clockwork.
The numbers behind each year’s Commencement are mind-boggling. Nearly 10,000 gallons of coffee, punch, and bottled water were served over the three-day weekend—if frozen, those 10,000 gallons could form the hockey rink at Agganis. Guests and graduates also quaffed 168 gallons of champagne. And then there’s the food: some 33,495 finger sandwiches were consumed, enough that stacked end-to-end would be 46 times higher than Warren Towers or 11 times the height of the Prudential Center. Add to that the 5,700 dozen cookies made from scratch and the 2.5 tons of cheese, fruits, and veggies served (roughly the combined weight of the men’s hockey team), and you get some sense of the magic that Dining Services staffers pull off every year.
Oh, and starting next week, planning begins for BU’s 146th Commencement, scheduled for May 19, 2019.
Find more information about Commencement here.
Phil Zekos can be reached at pzekos@bu.edu.
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