Texas Wesleyan honored undergraduate seniors alongside their parents, faculty and staff at the university’s 91st robing convocation Friday in Nicholas Martin Hall.

“From the time this institution of higher learning was founded in 1890, a strong bond has united members of the student body and the faculty,” Wesleyan President Frederick Slabach said. “This close relationship has developed because of the desire of the faculty to teach more than the subject matter, to teach students to think.”

The ceremony, in which each graduating student gets to choose a professor to robe them in their graduation garb, has been a tradition at Wesleyan since 1927, Slabach said.

“Because Texas Wesleyan University students have wanted to learn and understand the beliefs, philosophies and attitudes of their instructors and their professors, through the 128 years of this universities history,” Slabach said, “it has been recognized that if the student is to receive an education and if the faculty is to maintain an appropriate perspective on that process, the relationship between faculty and students must be strong and viable.”

Anthony Harper II will be graduating with a bachelor’s in forensic accounting Saturday. He chose Dr. Thomas Tolleson, professor of accounting, to robe him.

“He is my advisor, and he is a tough professor, but he is very challenging and also very helpful and caring,” Harper said.

Chelsea Hanes is graduating with a bachelor’s in business communication. She said the ceremony was very inspirational, but she is extremely nervous about Saturday’s graduation.

“I don’t want to trip and fall,” Hanes said. “It is a big day.”

During the ceremony, students Connor Parrish and Azeez Akande were awarded the Golden Shears pin.

A Master’s Hooding Convocation for master’s graduate students and a Doctorial Hooding Convocation for doctoral graduate students were also held Friday at Martin Hall.

Commencement is 10 a.m. Saturday at the MacGorman Chapel on the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary campus. For more information, go to txwes.edu