Investiture 2017

Note: this article has been updated to reflect the rain location for the class photographs at 3pm which have been moved to Alumni Hall.

The School of Graduate and Advanced Studies will hold its 2017 Investiture Ceremony on Saturday, June 10 at 4:00 pm in Spaulding Auditorium in the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Graduating students are requested to meet in Alumni Hall for formal class portraits, at 3:00 pm after which class groups (PhD, MS, etc.) will walk over to the Hopkins Center for the Arts. The rain location for photographs is Alumni Hall.

Celebrating the efforts and work of more than 260 graduates from 21 countries, the Investiture Ceremony is formal recognition of the honors achieved by the graduating students under the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.

Dean of the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies and Rodgers Professor of Chemistry, F. Jon Kull, ’88, will preside over the Ceremony with Dean of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Duane A. Compton, The Ted and Helen Geisel Third Century Professor in the Humanities and MALS Chair Donald. E. Pease and Natalie B.V. Riblet, MD '08, MPH ’12, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and of The Dartmouth Institute hooding the students from their respective programs.

Dean Kull and Provost Dever, more than fifty faculty members across the disciplines, and several members of the Board of Trustees will lead the processional. Student Marshals, Gilbert Rahme, (MCB '17), and Farah Salam, (MALS, '17), will lead their peers into the auditorium. Provost Dever will deliver the opening remarks. Rahme has also been chosen as a student speaker, as has Evelyn Zablah from the MALS program.

This year marks the third Investiture Ceremony, the first to be held indoors after last year’s event in the BEMA was at the mercy of the weather. Torrential rain notwithstanding, the Dartmouth spirit was undaunted. This year we anticipate a similarly warm and collegial celebration, reflective of the Dartmouth community attributes which draw so many of the nation’s brightest scholars to the graduate and advanced programs.

Immediately following the Ceremony, students and faculty will proceed to Moore Theatre for the official Investiture Group Photo and then over to the lawn in front of the Baker library for a reception. The lawn reception offers an opportunity for friends, family, and faculty to gather in a relaxed social setting. In the event of rain, the reception will be held in Alumni Hall in the Hopkins Center. All notifications regarding rain contingencies will be announced the morning of the Ceremony and will be posted to the GRAD website, and across social media.

Dartmouth’s newest school was established last year to address the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of education and research. This is the first year students will be recognized as graduates from the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies. It should be noted that the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies Investiture will not replace the Commencement Ceremony where degrees will be awarded.