Baccalaureate
Thursday, May 18, 2023, 4:30 p.m.
Robert V. Van Fossan Theatre
63 Fremont Street
Reception immediately following in Westminster Hall
Baccalaureate is a ceremony in which the armor of the student (the degree) is blessed in a non-denominational service. Generally, the students, faculty, administration, and academic guests proceed to the venue in full academic dress. Baccalaureate has its origins in the tradition of chivalry, in which the squire goes through a special ceremony to become a knight. As a part of the ceremony, the armor, sword, and spurs are blessed in a church before knighthood is conferred.
At the Baccalaureate, students who are graduating with Latin honors by virtue of having met and maintained high academic requirements, and students who are either members of the Bloomfield College Honors Program, members of one of the five national honor societies, or a military veteran will receive honor cords that signify their academic accomplishments. The colors of the cords represent the College, the various honors societies, various honors programs and our military veterans, and may be a single color or a combination of colors. The colors that the Bloomfield College students will be receiving are:
Latin Honors - gold (cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude)
Alpha Chi - blue and green (for students in all majors)
Chi Alpha Sigma - black and gold (for student athletes)
Bloomfield College Honors Program - red and gold
Delta Mu Delta - purple and gold (for students majoring in Business)
Kappa Delta Pi - purple and green (for students majoring in Education)
McNair Program - burgundy
Military Veteran - red, white and blue
Psi Chi - navy and platinum (for students majoring or minoring in Psychology)
Sigma Theta Tau International - white and orchid (for students majoring in Nursing)
To be considered for Latin honors at graduation, a student must have successfully completed at least sixteen (16) course units on the letter grade system at Bloomfield College. Credits earned in courses below the 100 level will not be included in the cumulative grade point average upon graduation, and will not be used in determining averages for graduation with honors. A student who has earned a cumulative grade point average of 3.50 and a 3.50 average in the major is eligible for cum laude; both averages must be 3.65 for magna cum laude and 3.80 for summa cum laude.
Other academic awards will also be presented at Baccalaureate.
Invitations to attend the Baccalaureate for students eligible to receive Latin honors, Bloomfield College honors program, McNair Scholars, military veteran honors, honor society cords, and certain academic awards will be sent by email (to your Bloomfield College email account) on or after May 1, 2023. Regalia is required for students participating in this event.
If you do not attend the Baccalaureate but will be attending Commencement and would like to wear your cords, you can pick them up at student check-in the morning of Commencement at College Hall. Please let the person at the desk know you were to receive honor cords.
If you do not attend the Baccalaureate or Commencement, you can request your cord(s)/award(s) to be mailed by emailing denise_smith@bloomfield.edu or you can pick up starting May 22, 2023 at The Office of Academic Affairs, 73 Oakland during regular business hours.
Baccalaureate Speaker
Fiona “Freddie”Harris-Ramsby,Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Writing
2023 Teaching Excellence Award Recipient
Dr. Freddie Harris is a rhetorician, a want-to-be philosopher, a minimalist, a lover of British humor, and glam rock, a yoga instructor, a horse trainer, mother to a short legged dachshund collie cross, but, most of all an educator. Her scholarly work focuses on critical discourse analysis, ancient rhetorics (classical and renaissance) and contemporary rhetorics of science, embodiment, and performance.
But her most loved work is with students. Especially Bloomfield students, to whom she is forever indebted: for their humour, their sometimes exasperation-inducing ways, their grit, their love, and their unique version of what Baldassare Castiglione's in his 1528 The Book of the Courtier calls "Sprezzatura." Or. . . cool. It is a privilege and an honour to be your Professor.
For further information contact:
Denise Smith
Academic Affairs
973-748-9000 x1101
denise_smith@bloomfield.edu