The 80s were strange on campus. Mind you in grad school we all had jobs. Many had young families, mortgages, ya da.
The year I got the diploma, my family took it as a time of great pride. Everyone was invited. Grandmas, great-grandpas, all the close relatives.
This was at a *small ivy*; same school as Tucker Carlson and Jessie Waters. That year, was the first year that the school did away with its cap and gown requirement. F
The formal, traditional dress was optional. Most of the undergrads decided that it would be cool to wear bowling shirts.
And that is what they did. Bowling shirts. Deep down, I was pretty miffed that this was on display, in front of my very straight-laced fam in attendance.
So the grad students were at the end-o-the-line of recipients. We stood together, berating the younger grads. many of the *liberated* undergrad wimmen also, decided to be naked under their caps & gowns. When they walked across the stage, you could see their bare silhouettes in the setting sun. Big whoops and cat-calls from the crowd.
It was pretty much a circus. I’m sure the staid professors were mortified.
Good times.
God help us, what kind of school calls itself a “small ivy”?
(I see online yours is Trinity in Hartford?)