Only the sound system, tables and chairs are provided by outside vendors. P reparing the campus for the four-day ceremonial event begins weeks in advance. After students move out of their dorm rooms, custodial crews scour about 3,000 rooms in preparation for alumni who will attend reunion. The crews polish floors, paint, replace torn shades, and fit linens onto beds. Electric candles are placed in each window of University Hall, to be lit Friday evening and not turned off again until Monday, after the ceremonies conclude.
Groundskeepers seed and fertilize campus greenery, mow the lawns and prune the bushes.
Student workers bolster the crew and help plant new flowerbeds with plants that have been cultivated in a greenhouse on campus. During the fourth week of May, workers attach the lanterns. Then, early Sunday morning of Commencement Weekend the lanterns all come down. Everybody works together. When all the ceremonies conclude and the alumni, students and their families have gone home, Tuesday is devoted to filling out time cards and billing sheets, according to Vetere.