Nº Fall 2023 47 MAIA FARRIS, BFA ’20 %& GRADUATIºN TEAS Nearly all that remains of a tradition that started and stopped from the 1930s through the 1990s are about 100 teacups and saucers carefully wrapped and stored in the Hawthorn Suite in Milam Hall. In the 1930s, women graduates across campus began gathering upstairs in the Women’s Building for tea as part of a Commencement celebration. Nationwide, it was rare for a woman to attend college at this time. In 193031, only a quarter of college students were women. To honor the occasion, each participant donated a teacup and saucer, signing their name and graduation year on the bottom. At some point, the tea parties stopped, but women in physical education picked it back up, and the custom continued through the mid-1980s, led by sta" in the then College of Health and Physical Education (now called the College of Health,see p.20).In the mid-1990s,faculty briefly revived the tradition, using the cups at a Commencement brunch. This time, the event included men. Former sta" member Michelle Mahana recalls a male graduate shyly producing a cup and saucer, saying his grandmother had requested he take part in the tradition as she had. After a few years, the tea parties died out once more, leaving behind cups, saucers and memories. —KATHRYN STROPPEL
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