Commencement 2015: By the numbers

Jessica Renteria

By Jennifer Jopson

UCI’s 2015 commencement season for undergraduates concluded Monday, June 15, with The Paul Merage School of Business undergraduate ceremony. Nine other events were held over the weekend in the Bren Events Center. This year’s commencement is UCI’s 50th. At the first, 14 diplomas were handed out. The campus has grown quite a bit since, and faculty, staff and volunteers worked feverishly to make sure the 2015 festivities went off without a hitch. Here are some of the logistical facts and figures:

50,000: Estimated guests attending

21,171: Estimated photos of graduates during ceremonies

18,000: Estimated cars parked over three days

8,000: Programs distributed

7,057: Students who will walk

5,000+: Hits expected on commencement website

1,880: Social sciences graduates

1,063: Social ecology graduates

770: Biological sciences graduates

676: Engineering graduates

613: Humanities graduates

578: Public health graduates

406: Information & computer sciences graduates

362: Physical sciences graduates

244: Arts graduates

159: Pharmaceutical sciences graduates

150: Parking attendants

130: Volunteers

128: Business graduates

122: Education graduates

93: Future doctors graduating from the School of Medicine

42: Nursing science graduates

14: Graduates at UCI’s first commencement, in 1966

12: Peter the Anteater appearances at commencement ceremonies

10: Speakers at commencement ceremonies (including Henry Samueli, chief technical officer and chairman of the board at Broadcom Corp. and Anaheim Ducks owner; and Greg Louganis ’83, four-time Olympic diving champion and UCI alumnus)

6: Average number of seconds it takes to walk across a commencement stage

5: Countries in which the most friends and family members are expected to watch the live Web stream – U.S., India, Canada, United Kingdom and Japan

5: Length in feet of the UCI Mace carried in all graduation exercises and student convocations since the UCI Alumni Association presented it to the university in 2000

5: Years spent on reporting, writing, photography, layout and printing of the 50th anniversary book

1: Senior class gift of additional 3-D printers, a 3-D scanner and related tools for the Francisco J. Ayala Science Library

*Photo: Steve Zylius / UC Irvine