Significance of Graduation

To the U of M Community:

It is important to realize the significance of moving the graduation ceremony from the Ann Arbor campus. For myself and many of my classmates the Big House represents a sacred place to congregate for Michigan fans regardless of age, sex, color, and financial background. It is a place that represents our devotion to universal equality. It represents our tradition as one of the oldest Universities in the United States and allows us to sit alongside our alumni who contribute generously to our education. We are a notoriously proud community and it is this pride in our university that prompted Fielding Yost in 1922 to say: "...let me reiterate the spirit of Michigan. It is based upon the deathless loyalty to Michigan and all her ways; an enthusiasm that makes it second nature for Michigan men to spread the gospel of their university to the world’s different outposts; a conviction that nowhere is there a better university, in any way, than this Michigan of ours.”
Not to graduate in our Ann Arbor would mean an incomplete adieu to several of the most influential years of our lives.

Stephen Schrage
Graduating Senior