COLLEGIATE.  A member of a college.

COMBINATION.  An agreement, for effecting some object by joint operation; in an ill sense, when the purpose is illegal or iniquitous.  An agreement entered into by students to resist or disobey the Faculty of the College, or to do any unlawful act, is a combination.  When the number concerned is so great as to render it inexpedient to punish all, those most culpable are usually selected, or as many as are deemed necessary to satisfy the demands of justice.—­Laws Yale Coll., 1837, p. 27. Laws Univ.  Cam., Mass., 1848, p. 23.

COMBINATION ROOM.  In the University of Cambridge Eng., a room into which the fellows, and others in authority withdraw after dinner, for wine, dessert, and conversation.—­Webster.

In popular phrase, the word room is omitted.

“There will be some quiet Bachelors there, I suppose,” thought I, “and a Junior Fellow or two, some of those I have met in combination.”—­Bristed’s Five Years in an Eng.  Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 52.

COMITAT.  In the German universities, a procession formed to accompany a departing fellow-student with public honor out of the city.—­Howitt.

COMMEMORATION DAY.  At the University of Oxford, Eng., this day is an annual solemnity in honor of the benefactors of the University, when orations are delivered, and prize compositions are read in the theatre.  It is the great day of festivity for the year.—­Huber.

At the University of Cambridge, Eng., there is always a sermon on this day.  The lesson which is read in the course of the service is from Ecclus. xliv.:  “Let us now praise famous men,” &c.  It is “a day,” says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, “devoted to prayers, and good living.”  It was formerly called Anniversary Day.

COMMENCE.  To take a degree, or the first degree, in a university or college.—­Bailey.

Nine Bachelors commenced at Cambridge; they were young men of good hope, and performed their acts so as to give good proof of their proficiency in the tongues and arts.—­Winthrop’s Journal, by Mr. Savage, Vol.  II. p. 87.

Four Senior Sophisters came from Saybrook, and received the Degree of Bachelor of Arts, and several others commenced Masters.—­Clap’s Hist.  Yale Coll., p. 20.

  A scholar see him now commence,
  Without the aid of books or sense.
    Trumbull’s Progress of Dullness, 1794, p. 12.

Charles Chauncy ... was afterwards, when qualified, sent to the University of Cambridge, where he commenced Bachelor of Divinity.—­Hist.  Sketch of First Ch. in Boston, 1812, p. 211.

COMMENCEMENT.  The time when students in colleges commence Bachelors; a day in which degrees are publicly conferred in the English and American universities.—­Webster.

At Harvard College, in its earliest days, Commencements were attended, as at present, by the highest officers in the State.  At the first Commencement, on the second Tuesday of August, 1642, we are told that “the Governour, Magistrates, and the Ministers, from all parts, with all sorts of schollars, and others in great numbers, were present.”—­New England’s First Fruits, in Mass.  Hist.  Coll., Vol.  I. p. 246.