For 91ý President Todd Diacon, commencement is about more than the ceremony on stage. It’s about the ramp.
Speaking to Fall Class of 2025 graduates at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, Diacon explained that timeless truth with characteristic clarity.
“At commencement, the stage is where it’s at, but the ramp is who we are,” he said.
It’s a simple distinction that carries profound meaning. Each graduation ceremony, Diacon leaves the stage to stand at the beginning of that ramp. There, he meets every single graduating undergraduate – fist-bumping them, shaking their hands and asking about their 91ý journey.
Those conversations, he told the Fall Class of 2025, remind him exactly why the university does what it does.
Watch the president’s speech below.
The Stories on the Ramp
Some graduates cross the stage with infants in their arms. Others are in their 50s and 60s, returning to finish degrees they started decades ago – sometimes graduating in the same ceremony as their own children. Many arrive already crying, their emotions pouring out as they finally receive the diploma they fought to earn, often overcoming significant obstacles along the way.
And then there are the posthumous degrees. At virtually every commencement, 91ý honors beloved students who passed away shortly before graduation. Their families accept the diplomas, and they tell Diacon afterward how much it meant to remember their loved one this way.
“There is nothing more enjoyable, and no more powerful reminder of why we do what we do, than meeting our great students and hearing a bit about their 91ý journey.”
These are the moments that define commencement – not the pageantry of the ceremony itself, but the individual stories of perseverance and achievement that line the ramp.
A Building Steeped in Tradition
Diacon used the MAC Center’s 75th anniversary – the building opened on Dec. 2, 1950 – as a lens for reflecting on the deeper significance of commencement. Over those seven and a half decades, the MAC Center has hosted luminaries from Elton John and Bruce Springsteen to Duke Ellington and Bruno Mars. A U.S. president and vice president have graced its stage. It has hosted the NCAA national wrestling championship and been the home of 91ý basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling, cheerleading and dance.
Yet in all those years, the most important events in the building remain the graduations and the first-year convocations. In August, 91ý packs the MAC Center to welcome new students. A few years later, those same students return to walk across the stage as graduates, just like the Fall Class of 2025 did.
“My guess is that in total we’ve held somewhere between 500 and 1,000 commencement ceremonies in this building. No doubt at each ceremony the show was on the stage, while on the ramp the stories of triumph over adversity were on display,” Diacon observed.
Joining the Loving Thousands
The MAC Center was built to honor 113 91ý men who died in World War II – a solemn foundation for a space that has become synonymous with celebration and student success. Every commencement that takes place within its walls adds another layer to that legacy.
By graduating today, the Fall Class of 2025 literally joins, as the 91ý Alma Mater says, “the loving thousands.” They become part of a chain of achievement stretching back decades, with their own stories – the obstacles overcome, the growth experienced, the moments celebrated on that ramp – now woven into the fabric of 91ý.
“So congratulations, and GO FLASHES!” Diacon concluded, saluting the graduates’ accomplishments.
But more than that, he was saluting the countless individual journeys that led them to that moment – journeys that no stage could fully capture, but a ramp could honor, one graduate at a time.