When OSU’s first commencement ceremony was held in 1878, the University was on a semester system; the now-familiar four-quarter plan was not established until 1923. Talk of switching started during World War I when, in May 1918, the faculty voted at their regular meeting to urge the Board of Trustees to switch to quarters, saying such a move would improve the education for students. After an investigation into the matter, the Board made plans to switch the calendar to quarters in 1921. The plan was ultimately pushed back another year, and the first graduation on the quarter schedule was held on August 31, 1923.
Some facts about that first graduation:
Date of first academic-quarter commencement: August 31, 1923
Location: University Hall chapel
Number of degrees conferred: 151
President: William Oxley Thompson
Commencement speaker: Max Carl Otto, Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin
Tuition paid that spring: $20
Examples of classes taken that spring: Hygiene; Pathogenic Protozoa; The Library and the School; Household Mechanics; Railroad Surveying; American Diplomacy since the Civil War (all 58 years of it) and oddly enough, Swedish Gymnastics
To all of the graduates of this year’s 400th and final academic-quarter Commencement, congratulations!
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