Events
• BEAR FAIRE FOR GRADUATESSpring Bear Faire for May graduates will be Wednesday and Thursday, March 20-21, noon-6 p.m., Stone Room, Ferrell Center.
• SHOUT OUT - A Baylor tradition
The Shout Out video gives each graduating student 30-60 seconds to record a 'Shout Out' to friends and family and express their support and love throughout the years. You don't have to dress up, you don't have to have anything prepared, just come and give a Shout Out!
A compilation of these messages will be played as guests are finding their seats in Ferrell Center, preceding the commencement ceremony. It is fun for graduates to make and great for parents and friends to watch as they wait.
FILMING DATE: Shout Outs will be recorded only during Bear Faire March 20-21, noon-6 p.m. each day.
• RING OUT/PASSING OF THE KEY
Ring Out and the Passing of the Key is held each Spring prior to May Commencement ceremonies. This spring, it will be held in Burleson Quadrangle on Thursday, May 2 at 6 p.m. More information on the ceremony and how to register to participate is available here.
The Senior Ring Out Ceremony is an annual tradition at Baylor University and was first a part of the Commencement activities in 1927 when the senior class was invited to participate. The symbolic ceremony signifies the passing of the guardianship of the Baylor spirit.
Historically, the ceremony has included primarily women. Graduating senior women, dressed in traditional graduation gowns, pass a chain of ivy to junior women wearing white. Forming a circle near the Baylor bells in Burleson Quadrangle (the smaller bell from Baylor's first campus at Independence, Texas and the larger bell from Waco University where Baylor now exists), the seniors pass the charge of leadership to the next graduating class.
Since 1946, the men of the senior and junior classes have participated in the Passing of the Key ceremony during Ring Out. Senior men are in graduation gowns and junior men are dressed in dark suits. A representative of the senior class, who has been designated the "Custodian" of the key to the box of relics buried under the Centennial monument in the center of Founders Pleasance, passes the key to a junior representative. As with Ring Out, the ceremony symbolizes the binding of classes in loyalty to the traditions of Baylor.
