Berkeley Commencement

Historical Milestones

• 1864 — The first graduates of the College of California, predecessor of the University of California, received their degrees at a commencement held in June 1864 at the Presbyterian Church in Oakland. Highlights included an address by California Senator Newton Booth and the reading of Daphne, a poem composed for the occasion by Bret Harte.
• 1873 — On July 16, 1873, campuswide commencement ceremonies began in Berkeley. The exercises were held in the large hall of North College and, again, Newton Booth (now governor) gave an address.
• 1943–46 — During a portion of World War II, 1943–46, the university maintained an accelerated program of three terms yearly. Exercises held at the end of each term were known as “graduation convocations.”
• 1970 and 1990 — Due to ongoing campus unrest, the Class of 1970 had no campuswide commencement ceremony. Two decades later, in 1990, more than 200 fortysomething graduates donned black caps and gowns prior to a Cal-UCLA football game for a much delayed and deserved ceremony.
• 1970 — As a result of the suspension of campuswide commencement, departments began holding their own graduation ceremonies in 1970, a practice that continues to this day.
• 1970 — A list in the University Archives includes a total of 39 ceremonies, including a Chicano Independent Commencement that took place on June 16, 1970 — likely the beginning of affinity group graduations as well.
• 1991 — Campuswide ceremonies were restored in 1991 with a “senior celebration” — for graduating students only — at Zellerbach Hall, followed by a reception.
• 1992–3 — No ceremonies were held in 1992, but returned in 1993 with a commencement convocation in Zellerbach Hall similar in format to the campuswide exercises we see today; Jerry Brown ’61 (then between his second term as governor and first as mayor of Oakland) gave the keynote address.
• 1972 and 2009 — The University of California, Berkeley stopped conferring honorary degrees on commencement speakers — and everyone else — in 1972. There has been only one exception to that rule since: in 2009, the campus honored 42 former Cal students of Japanese descent. They received the degrees they had been working toward nearly seven decades before, when Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II.
• 2020–present — The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the commencements for the classes that have graduated during this time, and the campus has had to reinvent the ceremony each semester according to what was feasible at that moment. The Class of 2020, for example, attended a virtual mock ceremony at Blockeley University, a fantastical recreation of the campus built by students and alums using Minecraft. The Class of 2021 participated in a five-day, in-person procession at the Greek Theatre for graduates only in which they were masked, distanced, and walked across the stage one at a time to receive a symbolic diploma and have their pictures taken. All of the classes have received an official virtual ceremony, a symbol of how things have changed during the pandemic.