By Vic Cox

The week after one of the largest commencements in UCSB history, the Faculty Club Lawn next to the Campus Lagoon looked like a small army had encamped there, and in a sense it had.

More than 9,000 folding chairs had occupied the slope leading down to a portable stage with awning and lectern. Other tents and shade awnings had been raised to protect people who were “sun sensitive,” according to one sign, or to house the information booth or commencement book sales display, among other services.

It took a week and 20 to 25 workers each day to set up all these accommodations and encircle the area with a temporary plastic fence, according to Jeff Goldmann, supervisor of furniture for the Central Stores Department. “My crews worked 13-hour days on commencement weekend, but it’s a team effort with other campus units,” he added. It also takes four days to tear down and store these items until they would be needed again.

Last weekend, an estimated 40,000 family and friends used these facilities to watch some 4,600 seniors and graduate students perform the time-honored rituals signaling the end of this phase of their education. Three separate ceremonies, each with its own guest and student speakers, took place on the lawn each day.

The preceding week had commencement ceremonies at other venues for the College of Creative Studies’ 84 departing seniors and for the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, which gave diplomas to five new doctorates and 63 new masters. Offering advice to CCS students was alumna Nancy Mullaney Harvey of the Tenfold Corp., while Lynn Scarlett, deputy secretary and acting head of the U.S. Department of Interior, spoke to the Bren graduates.

On Saturday, with carillonneur Margo Halsted’s music echoing over a sunny but cool campus, the first contingent—more than 900 students from 26 majors in science and mathematics—marched to their seats for the 9 a.m. ceremony. They heard from Fred Gluck, a former managing partner of McKinsey and Company and a UCSB Foundation trustee.

These were followed at 1 p.m. by about 450 undergraduates in five engineering and science majors. Their speaker was William J. Perry, former U.S. secretary of defense and current co-director of Stanford University’s Preventive Defense Project.

At 4 p.m., more than 900 students from four social science majors heard entrepreneur William E. Strickland, president and chief executive officer of Manchester Bidwell Corp. of Pittsburgh, speak about investment in people from society’s lowest socioeconomic strata.

On Sunday, at the same times of day, approximately the same sizes of groups convened for their commencement ceremonies. First were the nine majors grouped under “Social Sciences II.” They listened to the counsel of Wilma P. Mankiller, executive director and former principal chief of the Cherokee nation. Then came the 29 majors grouped together as humanities and fine arts. These 900-plus undergraduates heard from Elizabeth Gabler, president of Fox 2000 Pictures and a UCSB alumna.

Lastly, Angela Belcher, MIT professor of materials and another UCSB alumna, spoke to the Graduate Division’s new recipients of masters and doctorate degrees as well as those who had secured their teaching credentials. This group numbered approximately 450, with 230 of them winning Ph.D.s, according to the Office of Public Events, which coordinated most commencement activities with a large assist from campus staff members.

Not all the commencement audience was seated in front of the stage. UCSB Bookstore’s annual live Web cast counted 3,561 viewers, including a gravely ill mother in a hospital.

Will Wood, the bookstore technical manager, said the graduate’s father alerted him on Sunday to the mother’s situation and her wish to see their daughter graduate. Wood was able to coordinate with the hospital and get a computer into the mother’s room, and “She was able to fulfill her wish,” he said.