CLASS DAY EXERCISES WILL BE IN STADIUM

The formal exercises, on the morning of Commencement Day, Thursday, June 22, will be held in the bowl of the Stadium instead of in Sanders Theatre, as has been the custom in the past. This change of plans was approved at a meeting of the Corporation, on March 13, and has become effective by vote of the Board of Overseers at a meeting held last Monday.

The number of seats in the Stadium which will be used on the above occasion will be the same as that reserved for the Ivy Oration, on Class Day, amounting to 8,500 in all. This is an increase of more than 7,000 seats over Sanders Theatre, which will hold but 1,402 people.

A system of application for tickets will be announced immediately after the April recess, so that everyone receiving a degree will be able to secure a reasonable number for friends. The procession, which in past years has assembled in the Yard, will probably form on Soldiers Field. Ticket holders, who in the past have been unable to see the procession, will be able to watch it as it enters the Stadium. In case of rain the exercises will be held in Sanders Theatre, as in former years. Some scheme of preferential rain checks, such as is used by the Class Day Committee for the Ivy Oration, will be adopted.

History of Commencement Exercises.

Records show that the very early Commencements were held in the Hall of the College. Some time previous to the year 1725, the solemnities were transferred to the Old South Meeting House, where they continued to be celebrated until 1758. In the latter year the exercises were held for the first time in the Meeting-house of the First Parish, the northern boundary of which corresponded to the southern boundary of Dane Hall, as it now stands. It was in this building that Washington attended service during the siege of Boston. During the period from 1834 to 1872, Commencements were held in the Parish Church, which was the predecessor of the present building on Massachusetts avenue, opposite the main gate to the Yard. In 1873, the Commencement services were transferred to Appleton Chapel, where they continued to be held until 1876, the year in which the Commencement Day exercises were celebrated in Sanders Theatre for the first time. From 1876 until the present time Sanders Theatre has been the scene of all Commencements.

In the year 1764, Commencement exercises were omitted because of an epidemic of small pox, the custom being also unobserved during the period from 1775 to 1781.