Pitt commencements in the Pete

Four Pitt Pathfinders held 3-foot-tall signs well over their heads, so that anyone looking… Four Pitt Pathfinders held 3-foot-tall signs well over their heads, so that anyone looking over the flat black caps in the crowd could see them.

A milling mass of people packed the lower lobby of the Petersen Events Center around 1 p.m. Sunday, an hour before graduation ceremonies began. The lower lobby would empty in less than an hour, and remain largely quiet until the new Pitt alumni left with family and friends around 5 p.m.

The signs held by the Pathfinders, student employees who lead tours for prospective students, directed the family and guests to the concourse level and the graduates to the lawn level.

The graduates, in uniform with their black caps and gowns, filtered out of the crowd. Beneath the gowns they wore a variety of clothing, ranging from sweatshirts and jeans to full suits and dresses.

Most of the students packed the lawn level of the Pete, lining the railings while they waited for the ceremony to begin. A buzz of conversation filled the space, while graduating students separated themselves by school.

The School of Arts and Sciences, by far with the largest with more than twice as many graduates as any other school, planned to walk across the floor of the Petersen Events Center first, and all the other schools would follow. More than 3,000 students were slated to graduate that Sunday afternoon.

Students continued to arrive, some jogging as they entered the doors, arriving 15 minutes before the ceremony started.

Patrick Mansfield, who graduated with a degree in art history, said the ceremony and preparations were “a little hectic.” He had arrived at least a half hour early, when most of the students had gone up to the lawn level of the Pete.

From the packed lawn level, the black-clad students were led through the interior of the Pete before coming out on the floor, where several thousand seats and a raised platform had replaced the basketball court.

Sometimes the caps and gowns were the only things alike for any two students. They wore every kind of footwear from sneakers to boots and high heels to flip-flops. One or two women went barefoot, carrying their high heels in their hands.

As Chancellor Mark Nordenberg started the ceremony around 2 p.m., the students settled themselves in their seats, and the noise of the crowd died down.

John Swanson, the commencement speaker and namesake of the engineering school, took the stage before 3 p.m. He addressed a variety of subjects, from cyber security to the nature of life.

Throughout the ceremony, Pitt police were occasionally visible in the crowd — though security did not intrude on the proceedings.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said Pitt police were “hyper-vigilant” after hearing about a bomb scare that happened during the Pittsburgh Marathon earlier that day.

Largely insulated from the outside world in the air-conditioned Petersen Events Center, the ceremony went uninterrupted.

Former Student Government Board member Lance Bonner spoke briefly toward the end, after Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey asked him several weeks ago to address the graduates.

Rather than talk solely about academics, Bonner tried to find what brought all Pitt students together.

“The difficult thing about commencement is that it is not only undergrads,” he said. “There are grad students there, too. We all do different things.”

Many people focused on the academic side of commencement, Bonner said, “but there are athletes sitting right there.

“Athletics is something that unites everybody at Pitt,” he said.

Bonner, after thanking everyone at the ceremony, talked about some of the achievements that students had made in the past four years at Pitt, like the first men’s basketball No. 1 ranking last year, and Pitt football’s victory at the Meineke Car Care Bowl in December.

Many of the students had mixed feelings about graduating and the ceremony itself.

Elijah Rawls, who graduated with a degree in economics, stood in the Lower Lobby and looked excited after getting his degree.

“It feels good,” Rawls said. “It feels real good and scary at the same time.”

All of the effort to reach the ceremony, and to finish finals, still hadn’t “hit” Mansfield yet.

“I don’t feel any different,” Mansfield said. “Once fall comes and I don’t have to buy any books, maybe I will.”

Mansfield said he intended to take the year off and move out of Pittsburgh before going to graduate school, he hasn’t decided where yet.

“We have a good exit strategy,” he said of his and his friends’ leaving Pittsburgh. “We’ll leave before we hate it.”