Instead of pomp and circumstance, there’s roasted rack of lamb and two-potato gratin. And instead of a long walk past the crowd in May, there’s an intimate dinner with professors, classmates and a few invited guests. Welcome to the mid-semester commencement ceremony, where a handful of Grinnellians who choose to graduate either earlier or later than the rest of their class are wined and dined by President Russell K. Osgood several weeks before they’ll receive their diplomas in the mail or even finish their finals.
This year, 22 students will graduate in December and become the class of ’07.5, a slight increase over the mid-year classes of previous years. Many of these students are individuals who decided to take a semester off during college, putting them a semester's worth of credits behind most of their class members. James Anderson ’07.5, for example, spent a semester teaching nature lessons to kids on Alaska's wild Kodiak Island, while Emily Guenther ’07.5 worked at organic farms across Spain during spring semester of her sophomore year.
Other students, like Sidonie Straughn-Morse ’07.5, completed enough credits to graduate early. Instead of paying for an eighth semester, Straughn-Morse decided to receive her diploma early and spend the spring working full time in the A.V. Center, baking bread and paying the alumni rate to take one class ($145).
The total number graduating this semester is a slight increase over previous years. The four-course meal, hosted Wednesday Nov. 28, at the Old Glove Factory, featured speeches by a student-chosen faculty speaker (Professor Emeritus George Drake ’56 this year) comments by Osgood and Dean Jim Swartz and a benediction by college Chaplain Deanna Shorb. “It’s much more intimate than the May graduation,” explained Director of Conference Operations Rachel Bly ’93. “They don't walk across any stage, there’s a lot less ceremony ... They sit down and have dinner with the president, some faculty. It’s a celebratory but intimate way to graduate.”
“There were a lot of jokes made about the fact that we weren’t really graduating,” said Guenther, noting that all the “graduates” still have Hell Week and finals to live through. Since she participated in the whole stage-walking, hat-throwing ritual last spring, Guenther felt a little off about going through a mini-graduation once again. “It's really nice of them to have the ceremony, it’s very generous,” she explained, “but it wasn’t a big, life-changing experience. Maybe after finals I’ll feel a little differently.”
