Final Exercises have not always been a walk on the Lawn
“Walking the Lawn” is a University of Virginia tradition for graduates in Final Exercises, but the students have not always been making their way to the same destination. Here is a timeline of where the Final Exercises have been held over the years.
Ceremonies & Speakers
Founding
Founder Thomas Jefferson’s vision for the University of Virginia was of students and teachers living and learning together in the Academical Village, with the east and west sides connecting at the Rotunda, which served as the University library. Early students were rewarded for their studies with an education, but not with a degree or a diploma. A few students even petitioned the Board of Visitors for degrees, but the visitors did not acquiesce during Jefferson’s lifetime.
1829
In 1829 – three years after Jefferson’s death – the first “Public Day,” or commencement ceremony, was held in the Dome Room of the Rotunda. It featured a recitation of graduates’ names and student orations.
1848
Nearly two decades later, in 1848, commencement ceremonies took a more recognizable shape, with the first student-led procession and a single, prominent speaker.
1853
The ceremonies moved from the Dome Room once the Annex was completed in 1853. The four-story structure, extending from the north side of the Rotunda toward what is now University Avenue, housed classrooms, offices, laboratories and a large hall that hosted the Public Day ceremonies for years.
1895
But in 1895, the Annex burned, and the Rotunda was heavily damaged. According to Board of Visitors’ minutes from March 13, 1896, the faculty was “authorized to make suitable provision either in some one of the public buildings in Charlottesville or otherwise for the final celebration at the close of the session.”
1898
The Board of Visitors hired the New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White to restore the Rotunda and replace the space lost in the Annex fire. Partner Stanford White designed Rouss, Cabell and Cocke halls, closing in the south end of Jefferson’s Lawn. Once Cabell Hall (now Old Cabell Hall) was completed in 1898, Public Day ceremonies were held there.
1906
In 1906, University President Edwin Alderman, seeking to bump up the pomp and circumstance in the ceremony, directed that students and faculty members, in full academic regalia, process from the newly rebuilt Rotunda to Cabell Hall.
1921
The ceremonies took on more of the modern look in 1921 when, with the completion of the McIntire Amphitheatre, the graduation exercises were moved outdoors and renamed “Final Exercises.” The amphitheater was the home of Final Exercises until the late 1940s, when then-President Colgate Darden moved them to the south end of the Lawn, where they remain today.
1962
Until 1962, the University president conferred degrees and handed diplomas to the recipients, one-by-one. With the student body growing, proceedings were divided into the main ceremony, in which the president conferred degrees en masse, and separate, smaller “diploma ceremonies,” in which deans presented students with their degrees.
2015
By the early part of the 21st century, ever-growing enrollment was drawing estimated crowds of 20,000 people to the Lawn for Final Exercises. In 2015, with renovations to the Rotunda limiting access to, and space on, the Lawn, University administrators, with support from students in the classes of 2015, 2016 and 2017, chose to spread Final Exercises over two days, with the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences candidates walking the Lawn on Saturday and ceremonies for the other schools occurring on Sunday. The practice continued after the renovations were completed.
2020
The University canceled in-person Final Exercises in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, though it hosted a virtual ceremony. Leaders then invited the Class of 2020 to an in-person graduation ceremony in May 2021, to be held in Scott Stadium – giving participants room to spread out.
2021
A week later, the Class of 2021 had its own “socially distanced” graduation. Graduates walked the Lawn from the Rotunda, but then veered off to Scott Stadium, where the actual ceremony was held, with the graduates seated on the playing field several feet apart and their guests occupying the bleachers.
2022
Final Exercises returned to the Lawn in 2022, where they remain today. In 2024, the ceremonies for the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the School of Education and Human Development were moved from Sunday to Saturday, to further balance attendance.
Roosevelt
Graduation speakers have also varied over the years. In 1940, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his second term, addressed a class that included his son, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., who attended the Law School.
Johnson
In 1973, Lady Bird Johnson, former first lady, replaced her husband, former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had died four months earlier.
Collins
Ten Virginia governors have addressed UVA graduates, with future Gov. L. Douglas Wilder speaking in 1986 while serving as lieutenant governor. In a particularly memorable address, alumnus Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Project and future director of the National Institutes of Health, serenaded the Class of 2001 with his parody of a Frank Sinatra tune, “My Way.”
McCarthy
From 1971 to 1978, baccalaureate ceremonies also featured speakers, a list that included visionary R. Buckminster Fuller, poet and novelist James Dickey, and faculty members Kenneth Elzinga and George Garrett. In 1979, former U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy was the Baccalaureate/Class Day speaker.
Bice
Valedictory Exercises replaced the baccalaureate ceremonies in 1980, with beloved UVA psychology professor Raymond Bice as the inaugural speaker. With the expansion of Final Exercises to two days, Valedictory Exercises moved to Fridays in 2015, making Finals Weekend a three-day affair.
Media Contacts
University News Associate Office of University Communications
mkelly@virginia.edu (434) 924-7291
