Saying Good-Bye: An Anthropological Examination of a Commencement Ritual

This paper is an examination of college commencement, a formal campus exiting ritual orchestrated for students as they conclude their academic careers. The manuscript is focused on a single commencement ritual that illuminates the power of rituals to transmit cultural norms and provides an anthropological perspective that benefits scholars, practitioners, and policy makers as they endeavor to better understand and modify campus culture.