About

Traditions

Ring Out and Passing of the Key are held only in the spring semester. 

The Senior Ring Out Ceremony is an annual tradition at Baylor University and was first a part of the Commencement activities in 1927 when the senior class was invited to participate. The symbolic ceremony signifies the passing of the guardianship of the Baylor spirit. Historically, the ceremony has included primarily women. Graduating senior women, dressed in traditional graduation gowns, pass a chain of ivy to junior women wearing white. Forming a circle near the Baylor bells in the Quadrangle, the seniors pass the charge of leadership to the next graduating class. The smaller bell is from Baylor's first campus at Independence, Texas and the larger bell is from Waco, University where the campus now exists.

Since 1946, the men of the senior and junior classes have participated in the Passing of the Key ceremony during Ring Out. Senior men are in graduation gowns and junior men are dressed in dark suits. A representative from the senior class, who has been designated the "Custodian"  of the key to the box of relics buried under the Centennial  monument in the center of Founders Pleasance, passes the key to a junior representative. As with Ring Out, the ceremony symbolizes the binding of classes in loyalty to the traditions of Baylor.