Christenings and bar and bat mitzvahs. Debutante balls and quinceaneras. Funerals and weddings. What do all these rites of passage have in common with college commencements?

Many, many things, according to Vice Provost and Professor Pat Turner, a folklorist, who spelled out those connections earlier this week in a presentation at a west coast regional conference of the North American Association of Commencement Officers.

“But graduation is the hardest of all of these,” Turner told her audience in the UC Davis Conference Center. “Most are about one or two people. One baby being christened, two people getting married.” But commencements — especially at UC Davis — need to celebrate and honor the accomplishments of as many as 1,500 graduates in each of several ceremonies. “All of these students and their families and the institution have to be accounted for.”

The commencement, like these other rites of passage, typically includes several key ingredients: a processional, costume,  “sacred music” (though not necessarily religious: think Pomp and Circumstance), special language, witnesses, scripted text, scripted moments and a recessional. Again, Turner emphasized, doing all this well for so many graduates and their families takes a little doing.

And, according to her campus colleagues, Turner has been among the best at making the commencement ritual special on campus since 1999.  That’s how long she’s served as the vice provost for Undergraduate Education — except for a three-year stint, from 2004 to 2006, when she served as interim dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies.

As vice provost, she has also served as UC Davis’ “commencement queen, and done it with grace, wit and ease,” said Jean Wigglesworth, an event manager for Ceremonies and Special Events.

Turner, a professor who holds appointments in African American and African Studies and in American Studies, will be taking her teaching, administrative and commencement skills and experience south at the end of this year and switching UC campuses. She is moving to UCLA on Jan. 1 to serve as its dean and vice provost of Undergraduate Education.

During her talk, Turner discussed some of the peculiarities of such rituals. For example, for inside rituals, “We tend to bring nature inside. … We feel the need for nature in our ceremonies.” explaining all the greenery on the commencement stage and the bouquets, and for outside events we tend to use inside furniture like chairs and canopies.

All these events have witnesses, and in the case of commencements there are thousands of them.  But they also have “privileged witnesses” — the stage party of university leaders and honored guests for commencement, much like the wedding party at a wedding.

And most of these rites of passage include clothing that you will never, ever wear again.  For commencement, of course, it is the cap and gown. For the wedding party, Turner said, it is the rented Saturday Night Fever tuxes for the men and the, uhh, uniquely styled bridesmaid dresses for the women.

All brides tell their bridesmaids, “I’ve picked a dress you can wear again. No, you can’t wear that dress again!” Turner joked.

There are the sacred tokens, too, some visible sign that the individual has changed. In marriage, it is the exchange of the rings. In commencement, it is the shifting of the tassel on the cap. But in her years shaping UC Davis commencements, Turner said, graduates have told her that there are two aspects of the ceremony that are paramount to them:  tickets and “the touch.”

Students always need and want more tickets “because you want those witnesses there,” she said.  And the touch is that moment on the stage when the student crosses the stage and the chancellor or the dean shakes the student’s hand, or gives him or her a hug, a pat on the back or a high-five. 

How significant is the touch? “It is more important than a top marquee speaker.”

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