At Commencement, How Much Celebration Is Too Much?

Gwenda Kaczor for The Chronicle

In sports, success is enthusiastically celebrated. The buzzer-beater jump shot. The 50-foot eagle putt. The walk-off home run. The look I see on my 9-year-old when he claps after making a basket.

National Football League players set the standard for celebrations. It started with spiking the football — but times have changed. In 2003, the New Orleans Saints wide receiver Joe Horn pulled a cellphone out of the goal-post padding to place a call after a touchdown. Ickey Woods, of the Cincinnati Bengals, performed the “Ickey Shuffle” after his touchdowns. And if there were a hall of fame for touchdown celebrations, Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens would most certainly be in it.

In the 1980s, the NFL began to regulate what have become known as “excessive celebrations.” “Any prolonged, excessive, or premeditated celebration by individual players or groups of players will be construed as unsportsmanlike conduct,” the rules stated. In 2006 the league outlawed props and added 15-yard penalties. Both fans and players resented the tightening of rules, labeling the NFL the “no fun league.” In 2017 the league backed off, and we started to see creativity back in the end zone.

While many argue that athletes should act as if they’ve been there before when successful, as a society we’ve become more accepting of excessive, even over-the-top celebrations. So what about commencement?

It was interesting last graduation season to watch the wide range of responses to what we might call excessive commencement celebrations. On many campuses, the ritual includes students hearing their names called, walking across a stage, shaking hands, receiving the diploma (or at least the cover), taking a picture with the president, and returning to their seats. Pretty simple.

But over time, some new graduates have become more celebratory in their walk to get the diploma. No doubt, as students return to campus for the fall term, some seniors already are planning their graduation performances. College administrators should be planning as well.

I’m not sure when the phenomenon began, but I clearly recall when I saw it go to an excessive level. In 2002, Ray Charles was the commencement speaker at Albany State University, in Georgia, where I was vice president for student affairs. Our chief academic officer would deliver the same advice every year before degrees were conferred: Commencement is a dignified and solemn ceremony; every student deserved to hear his or her name called; the audience should refrain from outbursts.

As soon as she finished, someone yelled out a name. Several names. And then there was the air horn.

But in 2002 a young man’s name was called, and he proceeded to wildly and loudly hop across the stage — in front of Ray Charles, who was probably wondering what was going on — before ending up next to the president for his picture. That performance became our red line, and we instituted a rule against “excessive celebrations.” Not only was that display disruptive, but it had whipped up the crowd of thousands so that several of the following students could not hear their names called.

For the next few graduations, there were no problems. Everyone knew the policy and the consequences.

But the number of highly publicized commencement celebrations last spring has caused me to think about where we are, how we got here, and where we go. Where we are is a wide range of responses to celebrations. The University of Florida became a flash point, as we saw images of a marshal physically move off the stage several students who had gone into their celebration routines. Outrage ensued, and the university’s president found himself having to apologize. College administrators at subsequent commencements across the nation probably became hesitant as a result to say or do anything when students began to celebrate.

And celebrate they did.

At Huston-Tillotson University, a fraternity member brought his fraternity cane with him to the stage and did a short step routine. Four fraternity brothers at Johnson C. Smith University lined up in order so that after all their names were called, they could stroll together across the stage. And one fraternity brother of mine at the University of Texas did a vigorous step routine before an audience of thousands, essentially pausing the ceremony for 30 seconds (I timed him) plus the additional time to bring the crowd back to order.

I asked myself: Why? Several of the students who celebrated at Florida are members of historically black fraternities and sororities. In fact, practically all of the viral videos of excessive celebrations involve black fraternity members. When asked about the situation, one student indicated that “those moves are symbolic and important to our organizations.” As the author of Black Greek 101 and an expert on black fraternalism, I have a simple answer: No.

Stepping is not in our ritual (it didn’t evolve until the late 1960s). Black fraternity and sorority members, and maybe band members, are the only students who have a ritualized performance history as part of their culture. They represent a tiny percentage of any graduating class (even less at a predominantly white institution), so why should they take up the most time celebrating? They aren’t the only graduates who have overcome obstacles to graduate. If every student stepped or strolled across the stage, I guarantee the Greeks would be mad.

So how should institutions handle commencement decorum? College leaders must acknowledge the times in which we live, when “going viral” is a goal, many students chase celebrity, and many are looking for digital likes, retweets, and reposts. Even so, I expect that most graduates will continue to settle for the academic version of the spike in the end zone. They’ll walk across the stage and accept their diplomas, maybe raising their arms or waving to loved ones.

But every campus is different. Some colleges will insist on a formal ceremony. As things are, those institutions must overcommunicate their expectations and spell out any consequences for violating decorum. Commencement is, after all, an institutional event.

Other colleges are more embracing of a diversity of expressions. I would expect more flexibility on a smaller campus, where there might not be the time constraints of handing out hundreds of degrees. Huston-Tillotson and Winston-Salem State University, which are historically black, have embraced graduates’ celebrations publicly, via social media.

In any event, students right now are planning their commencement celebrations, hoping to go viral. As we saw last year, how an institution handles these performances can be a media nightmare or a feel-good moment.

The questions for colleges to consider are: What’s our commencement culture? Are unscripted celebrations allowed? If so, what’s an excessive celebration? Can celebrations involve props or other people? Now is the time to begin the conversation and establish guidelines, so that any surprises at graduation time don’t result in disappointed students or unprepared administrators — or both.

Walter Kimbrough is president of Dillard University.