Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Commencement

On Saturday, I was on campus to meet the newest UPMC (université Pierre et Marie Curie) alumni. I chatted with some of them and with their families about the services and programs we will soon organize for the UPMC community.
It was a great day! It was amazing! It felt so familiar, I missed that tradition so much. Commencement was one of my (many) favorite times on the Carnegie Mellon campus.
For the first time, the students were wearing a robe, as people do in the US... but no! we are not copying the US, this is a custom dating for the medieval age when the first universities were created....and it stopped in 1968.

It was so new in France and such a great event that the press, the tv, the news radio were present.
It is in French, but this was the coverage in main Evening News program:

http://videos.tf1.fr/jt-we/ils-recoivent-leur-doctorat-en-toges-4442689.html

1 comment:

David in Setouchi said...

I don't know, it kinda feels wrong...
And the fact that it was not copied on US universities is complete bullshit, it looks and feels 100% like an American commencement.

(sure, there were similar ceremonies in the past, but the gown, the hat, all of this, this is totally Anglo.)