While navigating your journey as a student here at Stevens — learning, living, enjoying life — one of the most significant, impending end-goals is commencement. It’s that moment when you can announce to the world that you did it. While this year’s commencement is on May 24, the history of these remarkable ceremonies goes back to the first graduating class from Stevens in 1875. Here is a brief history of commencements here at Stevens.
As many know, Stevens was founded in 1870. That fall, the first class of Stevens students began taking classes in what is now Edwin A. Stevens Hall. Four years later, those first students graduated — a mere eight of them: four from New Jersey, two from New York, one from Kentucky, and one international student hailing from Japan. They all earned their degrees in Mechanical Engineering, the first-ever students to do so. That ceremony included music, and a commencement speech by Professor Robert Henry Thurston, a faculty member, revolutionary in the world of material science, and pioneering mechanical engineer. As then-president of the Board of Trustees, S.B. Dodd conferred the degrees, and many distinguished visitors, including the Governor of New Jersey, gave speeches to impart their wisdom to the graduates.
As time went on, the commencement ceremony adapted and evolved with the world around it. The time of the event shifted around the week from Monday evenings to Friday nights, and then to Saturday mornings. Different performances include military bands, opera excerpts, and recitals from Stevens’s own Glee Club and Banjo Clubs.
One part of the ceremony that is often note-worthy is the commencement address. The address is referred to by the name “commencement” because it is intended to act more as advice for graduates’ new, professional lives rather than comments on their finished years at school. These speakers are often role models for students and celebrated figures in their industries — as well as often being Stevens alumni. As mentioned before, the first speaker was Professor Thurston, who was followed by Stevens President Henry Morton. Over the following decades, these speakers define a who’s who of the engineering world: Stevens faculty member (soon to be president) Alexander Humphreys, the chief electrician of Westinghouse, an ex-Secretary of the Navy, famed astronomers, MIT presidents, presidents of railways, high-ranking military officials, Harvard presidents, IBM CEOs, directors (and namesakes) of national laboratories, industry giants (who also have buildings on campus named after then, like John M. McLean), authors like Isaac Asimov, and even the Superintendent of the Smithsonian Museum.
Commencement ceremonies also tell the history of the school. In 1924, the first African-American student at Stevens, Jamaican-born Randolph Montrose Smith, graduated before starting a Civil Engineering career in New York City where he would play an intricate role in creating the subway system. For some time, there was no commencement speaker during the 1980s and 90s, coinciding with Stevens presidents who wished to be different along with some turmoil on campus. In 1974, the first woman, Lenore Harriet Schupak, graduated from Stevens with a bachelor of science degree in Science and Society. Interestingly, this is the first year a woman gave the commencement speech at Schupak’s graduation: Millicent Fenwick, a US House of Representative from New Jersey as well as a United Nations ambassador for food and agriculture under President Reagan.
For seniors, it is a time to celebrate. After years of hard work, tough exams, the rollercoaster of going to school through COVID, and experiencing changes on campus like the opening of the Gateway Academic Center and the University Center Complex. Congratulations to all those graduating, and welcome to be a part of the rich history of Stevens’s commencement ceremonies.
