The Convocation Ceremony Convocation is the most solemn ceremony within the university community. Since their beginnings in the Middle Ages, universities have performed this ceremony in order to grant degrees to their students and also to welcome those students into the community of scholars which has trained them. The conferring of the degree takes place at the moment when the student places his or her hands within those of the Chancellor, the President, or the Vice-President: Academic or other conferring officers of the University and the officer says "I admit you." As an outward sign of his or her new state, the student is hooded by a member of faculty. Each degree within a university has a hood of unique colours and trim in order that the student's status may be recognized -- indeed every university guards its own set of hoods from use by any other university. In order to recognize the nature of this event for the students involved, the university asks that parents and friends of the students participating in this ceremony withhold their applause until all members being admitted to each degree have left the dais. Wilfrid Laurier University Mace The mace of Wilfrid Laurier University was officially presented by the Euler family at the Fall Convocation, 1963, in memory of the Hon. Senator W.D. Euler, the first Chancellor of the University. It weighs sixteen pounds and was manufactured by the firm of Henry Birks Limited, Montreal. The ferrule near the base of the shaft contains ivory from a walrus tusk obtained from Coral Harbour, North West Territories. The ten-sided shaft, representing the ten provinces, merges into the head of the mace which bears the ten provincial crests. The wood used at the point where the shaft meets the head of the mace is elm taken from the bannister post of Conrad Hall, the original Seminary Building. Above this are four crests relating to the history of the Institution: a crest of Waterloo County, the Luther Coat of Arms, the crest of Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, and the Coat of Arms of the University of Western Ontario. The head of the mace is made of maple and bears the Federal Coat of Arms above which is the monogram of Queen Elizabeth II, during whose reign the University's Charter was granted. On the reverse side is the crest of Wilfrid Laurier University and the monogram of King George V during whose reign the original Charter was granted. The top of the mace is a crown, mounted with jewels, symbolizing the authority of the State.