From the Archives: MSU commencements through the years
EAST LANSING - The first class to graduate from the State Agricultural College - the class of 1861 - had seven members, all men.
The commencement itself was scheduled for November 1861, but never happened.
The entire graduating class - L.V. Beebe, Gilbert Dickey, A. Bayley, Henry Benham, A.N. Prentiss, A.F. Allen and C.E. Hollister - was excused from the college two months before commencement to join the Union Army.
The college's first commencement ceremony was held Wednesday, Nov. 12, 1862. There were nine students in the class. All of the speakers were graduating students. According to the Michigan State University archives, the college, which would become MSU, had not yet gotten into the tradition of bringing in outside speakers.
The first documented outside speaker was famed horticulturalist, Cornell University professor and M.A.C alumnus Liberty Hyde Bailey, who spoke in 1897.
The class of 1910 was the first to wear caps and gowns. A year later, the college held the first the Senior Swing Out, celebrating the first time a graduating class would be seen in cap and gown.
According to the MSU Archives, the graduating class would walk around campus, starting from “the Senior House,” passing the faculty buildings, to Morrill Hall, the library and old College Hall, stopping at what was called Sleepy Hollow, which is the field located directly across from IM Sports Circle.
After arriving, the class would get together and form lines to spell out their graduating year. This tradition continued until the early 1960s.
Two sitting presidents have addressed MSU's graduates: Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 and Bill Clinton in 1995. Richard Nixon spoke in 1957, when he was vice president. Harry Truman spoke in 1960, seven years after he'd left the presidency.
The most money spent on a commencement speaker was the $528,000 it cost to bring President Bill Clinton in 1995. A VIP brunch held for the president cost $100,000. It was paid for by the Jenison Fund, set aside by the university for special events. The alumni association spent $37,000 on decorations alone.
Click here for a list of MSU's commencement speakers.
Contact Vickki Dozier at (517) 267-1342 or vdozier@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@vickkiD.