Baala Shakya, Photo Editor

Members of the class of 2025 gathered on Old Campus Monday morning, joined by family, friends and faculty, to celebrate the University’s 324th Commencement ceremony.

In a procession through the New Haven Green from Cross Campus and Beinecke Plaza, students sported caps and gowns as they filed into thousands of chairs arranged on Old Campus. In total, the Yale Office of Public Affairs and Communications told the News that the University conferred 4,378 degrees.  

The event marked the first Commencement ceremony conducted by University President Maurie McInnis, whose appointment was announced one week after the 2024 Commencement weekend.

“We gather to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of all of you who have worked so hard to complete your programs of study,” McInnis said at the ceremony. “We salute your effort, your diligence, your talents and your intellect. We also join you in expressing gratitude for all who have supported you in these endeavors: your families and friends, teachers, and other members of the Yale community.”

The event featured performances from the Yale University Concert Band and music by the Yale University Guild of Carillonneurs. Led by the Yale Glee Club, audience members rose from their seats and sang the hymn “Psalm LXV: Thy Praise Alone,” which was sung in 1718 at the first Commencement after the naming of Yale College.

The awarding of degrees began with Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis, who announced that the Yale College class of 2025 earned a total of 1,151 bachelors of arts and 638 bachelors of science degrees.

Next, the deans of Yale’s graduate and professional schools presented students as candidates for degrees. McInnis then conferred the degrees to each student, admitting them to “all their rights and responsibilities” as new graduates. Following the bestowing of degrees, students celebrated with roaring applause, showering Old Campus with confetti and streamers.

Yale Provost Scott Strobel then joined McInnis onstage to present eight candidates for honorary doctorate degrees. Mcnnis then gave brief remarks about each honorand and handed them their degree.

The honorands included Pulitzer-Prize winning historian and Harvard law professor Annette Gordon-Reed; Yale professor emeritus of chemistry and molecular biophysics and biochemistry Peter B. Moore ’61; and acclaimed performer, producer and director Debbie Allen, who received a doctor of fine art. 

As Allen walked to receive her degree, graduates of the School of Drama gave her a standing ovation, which only grew louder as Allen performed a short, celebratory dance on stage after thanking McInnis.

The other honorands were the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church Michael B. Curry DIV ’78; artificial intelligence researcher Fei-Fei Li; Grammy-winning jazz bassist Ronald Carter; Nobel-prize winning chemical engineer Frances Arnold; and literary scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. ’73, who was featured in McInnis’ Sunday address at the Baccalaureate ceremony..

Yesterday, the honorands were spotted entering the Yale Center for British Art, where the University has traditionally hosted a celebratory reception for honorary degree recipients. As the honorands entered the reception through the back entrance of the YCBA, University officials attempted to shield them from public view with black partitions. The Yale Commencement website notes that honorands’ identities are traditionally kept confidential until the day they receive their degrees.

In the final moments of the commencement ceremony, graduates and audience members sang the closing hymn, “Let Light and Truth Suffuse the Mind.” The hymn was followed by a benediction from Gregory Sterling, the dean of the Divinity School. Graduates then departed Old Campus to receive their diplomas in ceremonies held by their respective residential colleges and professional and graduate schools.

The first Yale Commencement was held in Saybrook, Connecticut in 1702.