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 graduate after receiving her diploma](https://news.uci.edu/files/2015/04/9201788953_b51bf67dc9_o.jpg)
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.