This week Mount Sinai School of Medicine holds its 43rd commencement ceremony. Think about it: we use the word commencement - which can mean the beginning of something - to mark the end of our academic training. So, let's look back 40 years to the beginning of the School and the first time Mount Sinai graduated a group that had spent all four years of their training here.
When the School first opened in 1968, the administration was honored to be able to recruit both a first year and a third year class. This was in recognition of the many years Mount Sinai faculty had spent teaching the medical students from other schools. Thus the first commencement ceremony was held in 1970, two years after opening, and marked a milestone for the young school.
Happy parents after the 1972 commencement ceremony; the Class of 1972 reciting the Hippocratic Oath. [Click on the photo to see a larger image]
The 1972 graduation of the first ever first year class was also eagerly anticipated. The students, faculty, and families gathered at the Hunter College Assembly Hall on June 4th. There were 47 students graduating. (Last year Mount Sinai awarded 249 Masters, Ph.D. and MD degrees.) The ceremony was led by Hans Popper, MD, Ph.D., the Acting Dean and President who had stepped in when Dean George James had died suddenly in March 1972. Gustave L. Levy, the Chairman of the Boards of Trustees, spoke and also awarded the diplomas. The commencement address was delivered by Thomas S. Szasz, MD, a well known psychiatrist who discussed the ethics involved in medicine and being a physician. Jeffrey S. Flier spoke as the Student Representative. (Dr. Flier is today the Dean of Harvard's Medical Faculty.) It was a momentous occasion for all involved and remains a powerful memory for those who were there.
In many ways, the 1972 commencement marked the end of the beginning for the young medical school, just as all commencements represent an ending and a new beginning for the students themselves. Congratulations to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Class of 2012!

