June 17, 2009
Adding up the commencement numbers
One alligator, eight renditions of the national anthem, 36,000 visitors – these are just a few of the post-commencement numbers assessed by the Office of Student Affairs.
UC Irvine’s 2009 commencement season is behind us, and while graduates and their families revel in their accomplishments, campus personnel take stock: How did it go? What are the trends?
Here, courtesy of the Office of Student Affairs, are some facts and figures:
- 4,560: Number of students who walked.
- 36,000: Estimated number of guests attending.
- 66 minutes: Shortest ceremony, School of Humanities.
- 91 minutes: Longest ceremony, School of Engineering and School of Information and Computer Sciences.
- 47 minutes: Time it took School of Social Sciences speed-readers to announce 798 names. That’s 17 names per minute, or about one name every three seconds. Whew!
- 45,000: Number of hits on commencement Web site in the last week. Top sites, in order, were Web stream, ceremonies and directions/parking.
- 1,632: Number of visits to live Web stream – up fivefold from last year.
- 33: Number of countries from which visitors watched. After the U.S., the top country was India; visitors also hailed from Hong Kong, Mexico, Argentina, Germany and Italy, with one visit each from Vietnam, Netherlands, Spain, Poland and Singapore.
- 281: Number of cities from which visitors watched.
- 8: Number of times the national anthem was sung.
- 3 minutes: Average length of time it took performers to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
- 4 feet: Length of inflatable alligator confiscated during Social Sciences II ceremony.