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Because of COVID-19 and the necessary shuttering of schools everywhere, educational institutions have had to be creative in the ways they celebrate their graduated in 2020.

In honor of IU McKinney’s 125^th anniversary, and in recognition of the commencement exercises that would have taken place in May 2020, we thought it would be worthwhile to take a peek at what the festivities were like for some of the law school’s first graduates. If only we had pictures! But we do have commencement programs.

“Pomp and Circumstance” was beginning to be heard at commencement ceremonies beginning around 1905 but it hadn’t caught on in Indianapolis, according to the 1908 commencement program for the Indiana Law School, one of IU McKinney’s predecessors. We were part of the University of Indianapolis at that time, and classes took place at the Pythian Building, as did commencement. Graduates processed into the ceremony to a song titled “Old Faithful.” Graduates already had been admitted to the practice of law by the time the ceremony began.

Graduates of the Benjamin Harrison Law School, another of IU McKinney’s predecessor schools, were treated to dinner as part of commencement, which took place at the Columbia Club on the Circle in downtown Indianapolis. There’s no mention of the music, or the band that played on that night in June 1928, but graduates dined on shrimp cocktail, potage Longchamp, one half of a fried chicken, princess salad, and strawberry ice cream and cake. Law school makes people hungry.

A program from the Indiana Law School’s 1941 commencement exercises, which took place just a few short months before the United States entered World War II, shows “Pomp and Circumstance” was played as the processional. Valedictory addresses were delivered by a representative of the day division and the evening division, which should seem familiar to today’s IU McKinney graduates.

IU McKinney graduates have faced difficulties before and thrived. The law school’s students have lived through everything from World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic, the Great Depression, World War II, and a list of events that stretches to today’s coronavirus pandemic. IU McKinney students, faculty, staff, and alumni are working on an Online Graduation Celebration that will be shared far and wide in the coming days. And rest assured, there will be a traditional celebration as soon as it is safe to do so.