commencement

Yesterday as I was sitting at commencement for the umpteenth time I thought back to my own college graduation in the bicentennial year of 1976. Our ceremony was held for the first time in Washington Square Park, where it’s been held ever since. I had been thinking of teaching high school upon my release from the educational system, but New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy. The front page headline in the October 30, 1975, NY Daily News read “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” Schools were scaled back to four major areas: English, math, history, science. Experienced teachers lost their jobs and no new teachers were in the mix. The country wasn’t in much better shape, but at least the president wasn’t explicitly denying them bail out funds.

New York University is the largest private university in the country and gives about eight thousand degrees each year. (The school I teach at now doesn’t even have eight thousand students. Nowhere close.) Those eight thousand students and their teachers had to file into the park at the beginning of the ceremony and then file out again at the end. In order to cut down confusion of regular folk getting in the way of people trying to return their academic garb there was a small sentence at the end of the program reading “please remain seated until the recession is over.” Now that would have been a long sit. And today…an even longer sit, I’m sure.