Encaenia

Encaenia (/ɛnˈsiːniə/ en-SEE-nee-ə) is an academic or sometimes ecclesiastical ceremony, usually performed at colleges or universities.

[4] Preceding the ceremony is a procession of some of the participants to the Sheldonian Theatre, inside which the main event takes place.

Those who take part in the procession are the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, and Pro-Vice-Chancellors, the Heads of Houses (i.e. the university's colleges, societies, and halls), the four Heads of Division (i.e. the divisions of Humanities; Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences; Medical Sciences; and Social Sciences), holders of Higher Doctorates (i.e. those in Divinity, Civil Law, Medicine, Letters, Science, and Music), the Proctors, the Assessor, the Public Orator, the Professor of Poetry, and the Registrar, together with the outgoing President of the Oxford University Student Union, and the Presidents of the Junior and Middle Common Rooms of the colleges to which the Proctors and the Assessor belong.

At some institutions, encaenia is the evening shortly before commencement on which the college honors the graduating class with awards and prizes following a procession of candidates and faculty in academic regalia, often joined by trustees and administrators.

In the case of Fordham University, the graduates in turn bid farewell in the persons of the class valedictorian and, in a humorous yet loving way, the honorary "Lord" or "Lady of the Manor".