April 2024

On Friday, May 3 — Commencement Day — another wave of BJU graduates will join our alumni community. In honor of this annual rite of passage, the Alumni Relations Department asked BJU’s archivist, Dr. John Matzko, to provide a historical perspective.

Ambiguity is inherent in the word “commencement.” Although literally a beginning, Commencement is also a ceremony at which students receive diplomas at the end of their college career. Of course, that end also anticipates another beginning, an inauguration into another phase of life. Similarly, BJU Commencements have often celebrated the conclusion of an academic year while simultaneously looking forward to a new chapter in the school’s history.

The first Commencement, on May 31, 1928, was so unlike the modern ceremony it would hardly be recognizable. In its first year, Bob Jones College held a religious service at 9 a.m., restricted to faculty, staff, students and trustees only. At 10:30, a board member delivered a “graduation address,” but there were no graduates, only a presentation of “certificates and college honors.”

Five years later to the day, on May 31, 1933, Bob Jones College held its last Commencement in Florida. By then, there were graduates but no money. The college was bankrupt, so strapped for cash that it did not even publish a yearbook. Following the ceremony, Mrs. Jones Sr. and Bob Jones Jr. left the auditorium by a back door and, without returning to their home on the bay, drove north toward the challenges that awaited them in Cleveland, Tennessee.

At the 20th Commencement on May 28, 1947, in Cleveland, the school celebrated fourteen years of continuous growth. With 1,581 students, the school now had a student body approximately ten times larger than in 1933. And the alumni newspaper correctly anticipated that in “a new location” — in Greenville, South Carolina — ”we look to even greater growth.” That day, Bob Jones Jr. was formally installed as the second president of the University, though he had already shared administrative duties with his father for sixteen years.

During the 44th Commencement, on June 2, 1971, Bob Jones Jr., in turn, transferred the presidential medallion to Bob Jones III, again after the younger man had shared responsibility with his father for some years. Bob Jones III was only 32. Both at the time and later, he considered himself too young for the job. Thirty-four years later, when he conveyed the presidency to Stephen Jones at the 2005 Commencement, he at least waited until Stephen was a little older.

The 2005 Commencement again suggested a slightly new direction for the University. When Stephen Jones was asked by Newsweek magazine if he wanted to play a political role as had previous BJU presidents, he replied, “It would not be my choice.”

Unfortunately, because of health issues, he was forced to resign in 2014. While he was able to bid farewell to the 2014 graduating class, the presidency was not transferred during Commencement. Steve Pettit was announced as the new president a few days later and was inaugurated on September 19, 2014.

During his tenure, Steve Pettit ended up presiding over the strangest Commencement in University history. BJU closed in mid-March 2020 because of the COVID pandemic, so Commencement for the 2020 graduating class was postponed for a year until May 8, 2021 — one day after Commencement exercises were held for the 2021 graduating class. Even so, there was considerable satisfaction in having concluded that academic year with dual ceremonies.

While many institutions of higher education only offered online classes during the 2020–21 school year, BJU opened for in-person classes and welcomed a new generation of students — the freshmen who are now seniors graduating at this year’s Commencement.