Commencement Records

The first class of the Carnegie Technical Schools received their diplomas in 1908, in engineering and architecture, and the student body was predominately white, male, American and local. In 1912 the university offered its first four-year degrees as the Carnegie Institute of Technology, incorporating the School of Applied Design, the School of Applied Science, the School of Applied Industry, and the Margaret Morrison Carnegie School for women.

Across the one hundred and nine years documented in the Commencement records, commencement speakers consistently address how the graduating class will define their role in a changing world, offering unique insight into each year’s hopes, fears, and expectations for the future. In 1914, the year Carnegie Tech awarded the nation’s first drama degree, speaker Frank Vanderlip impressed upon the graduates the importance of good citizenship in a time of shifting attitudes toward government. During the Second World War, the university began to hold two and then three graduations per year to expedite students’ availability for the Selective Service. Commencement speakers wished students the best as they entered the war effort as soldiers and scientists.

Postwar addresses expose a drive to advance the nation’s technological and political prowess during the inception of the Cold War—a notable example is the 1956 commencement speech on nuclear power. In 1973, Margaret Morrison College dissolved, and its programs—and students—were absorbed into other schools; a year later the university had its first female commencement speaker. Advertising executive Mary Wells Lawrence didn’t dwell on her status as a woman in business, but on the power of business—American business—in the modern world.

The biggest milestone of institutional growth was the merger between Carnegie Tech and the Mellon Institute to form Carnegie Mellon University, establishing the Mellon College of Science and the Carnegie Institute of Technology for engineering. As the university’s offerings expanded dramatically, so did the diversity of its student body. With the closure of Margaret Morrison Carnegie College in 1973, women filled more slots in all the university’s programs, old and new. Students came from a wider geographic range across the country, and the world, to attend unique programs in the Graduate School of Industrial Administration and the School of Urban Public Affairs.