Looking Back: Novi High School commencement ceremonies

NOVI — The Novi High School graduation ceremony hasn’t always been held at the George Gervin GameAbove Center, formerly known as the Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center in Ypsilanti. In fact, the commencement ceremony for the Class of 1985 was held on the football field. Novi HIgh School later moved its commencement ceremonies to EMU because of growing class sizes. The Class of 1985 was approximately 280 students, whereas the class of 2026 had 510 students.  

Another noticeable change is that male and female graduates used to wear different colored robes; girls wore white, and boys wore green. Today, all graduates wear green. It appears the last graduating class to wear different robes was the Class of 2021.  

Boys and girls at one point were also seated on opposite sides of the aisle. In addition, one member of the Class of 1985 recalled that they were paraded onto the field and seated based on their height, with shorter people seated in the front and taller people in the back.