Benedictine College begins graduation weekend with nursing pinning ceremony

Benedictine College opened graduation weekend Friday with a 10 a.m. Senior Champagne Brunch in the Dining Hall and a 1 p.m. Nursing Pinning Ceremony, the first clear sign that one of Atchison’s busiest annual weekends had arrived on campus and in town.

The college’s schedule notes that times may run longer than expected, a practical detail for families trying to move between events, parking areas and later meals around Atchison. The brunch was hosted by the Office of Alumni & Career Services and was limited to graduates, while the pinning ceremony carried added weight as a long-held tradition welcoming new nurses into the profession.

Saturday’s Class of 2026 commencement was set for May 16, and Benedictine also listed the ceremony in its events calendar. For relatives who could not get to Atchison, the college said commencement would be available through YouTube livestreams, with campus simulcast locations also planned for Commencement and the Baccalaureate Mass. That mix of in-person and remote viewing should help absorb some of the pressure that comes when hundreds of guests converge on campus at once.

The scale matters for the city beyond the ceremony itself. Benedictine has said a study found the college generates more than $116.4 million in annual economic impact, including nearly $60 million in local impact for Atchison. With about 2,535 students, including 2,403 undergraduates and 132 graduate students, the school sends a sizable wave of parents, siblings, faculty and friends into town when graduation weekend begins.

That flow of people is familiar at an institution whose roots go back to St. Benedict’s Abbey, founded in April 1857 to serve German settlers in Kansas Territory. The modern college was formed in 1971 by merging St. Benedict’s College and Mount St. Scholastica College, and the annual commencement weekend remains one of its most visible public moments.

Benedictine’s 2023 commencement recap said a record 424 seniors walked across the stage that year, a reminder of how large the weekend can become. With Friday’s pinning ceremony already underway and Saturday’s ceremony ahead, Atchison was set for a concentrated burst of campus traffic, restaurant demand and family activity tied to one of the community’s most important academic traditions.