Some of the biggest parties in America are the celebrations that colleges and universities put on when they get new presidents:

Purdue University spent more than $220,000 for inauguration festivities in April. The bill for inaugural events at the University of Connecticut, also that month, totaled some $170,000, including $29,000 for invitations and $5,000 for fireworks.
And it’s hard to find a party more expensive than the one for Michael F. Collins, who was inaugurated as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Boston in April 2006. The celebration cost more than $512,000 and included a concert by the Grammy Award-winning rapper Kanye West. (Mr. Collins left office about a year later, in May 2007.)