Tears competed for space with raindrops on the faces of attendants as the morning showers, switching between drizzle and downpours throughout Sunday morning, flowed even more than the red graduation gowns.
An estimated 20,000 attendants, including 5,776 graduating students, gathered at Nickerson Field for Boston University’s 131st Commencement ceremony.
The audience, resembling a dripping mosaic of multicolored umbrellas set on a backdrop of red plastic ponchos, listened to Alexander Boyer, now a graduate of the College of Fine Arts, sing the national anthem.
His Beatitude Anastasios, Archbishop of Albania, delivered the Invocation, observing the importance of being “willing to work for progress.”
Student Speaker Julie Claire Macé, of the College of Arts and Sciences, urged the graduates to travel, participate in their communities and disprove the notion of their generation as apathetic and uninvolved.
“We may have to wander physically and intellectually as we seek out the answers,” Macé said. “Sometimes getting lost is the only way to find yourself.”
President Emeritus John Silber presented the Metcalf Cup and Prize, an honor that recognizes excellence in teaching, to Professor of Music Joel Sheveloff.
“He loves music in all its manifestations and communicates the intensity of that passion in his classroom with a joie de vivre as strong at 69 as it was at 29,” Silber said.
Sheveloff donated the prize money to the memorial fund for late Professor John Daverio, a contribution that Boston University has decided to match.
Silber also presented a Metcalf Award to Department of Earth Sciences Associate Professor David Marchant.
“In front of a large lecture course or around a seminar table, David Marchant’s passion for his subject is obvious to everyone,” Silber said.
Silber said Department of Computer Science in the Metropolitan College Assistant Professor Anatoly Temkim, another recipient of a Metcalf Award, teaches a diverse group of students that includes freshman, advanced graduate students, insurance company employees and prison inmates.
“Regardless of the setting, Professor Temkim’s mathematics and computer science students praise not only his teaching methods but also their transforming power,” Silber said.
Rosanna Warren, the third recipient of the Metcalf Award, received similar praise from Silber.
“Professor Warren’s joy, curiosity, fervor and delight are contagious, and her students, possessed by her enthusiasm and dedication, leave her classes permanently changed,” he said.
President ad interim Aram Chobanian conferred honorary degrees to Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, Nobel laureate Saul Bellow, Boston entrepreneur and philanthropist Irwin Chafetz, Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, Massachusetts Congressman Edward J. Markey, award-winning actress and BU alumna Alfre Woodard and scientist and entrepreneur J. Craig Venter.
Venter, who was a leader in the effort to decode the human genome, delivered the keynote address. He gave the “Venter rules for living”: “Remain true to the child in you,” “Be a risk taker,” “Trust your instincts and blaze your own trail,” “Live every day as if it is your last” and, the admittedly cliché, “Just do it.”
Venter told the graduating students how living by these rules has helped him with his remarkable advances in scientific research.
He also urged attendants not to accept the world around them, a world that knowledge of science helps us all to see more clearly.
CAS graduate Alex Cheema-Fox said, “I loved the speaker. He had balls. He was brilliant and forceful.” But Chris Savio, a CAS graduate said, “It wasn’t that good. I felt like we were at a seminar for genealogy.”
The Reverend Dr. Robert C. Neville delivered the Benediction, saying, “God loves a noisy celebration.”
BU Spokesman Colin Riley said, “We wish it wouldn’t rain, but we are prepared to handle it,” noting the ponchos distributed to attendants.
“They made a commitment to be here to support their sons and daughters,” Riley said. “Sitting here through inclement weather is something they are willing to put up with after already making the sacrifices for their sons’ and daughters’ educations.”
CAS graduate Deborah Attwood said she enjoyed the ceremony.
“But it was a shame it rained,” Attwood said. “It made it more onerous.”
But despite the rain adding a little extra hassle to the tassel, CAS graduate John Baker described the ceremony as “wet,” but still enjoyable.
“It didn’t put a damper on anything,” Baker said. “[The rain] made it a unique experience.”
Other students seemed to enjoy the ceremony just as much, yelling to family members and friends and wearing caps decorated with “WICKED SMAHT,” “I love BU,” golf tees and “$152K hat.”
Joyce Leavitt said the ceremony was “great” despite the weather.
“It was worth it. My son is graduating from college,” Leavitt said. “And they were very well prepared. The ponchos were waiting for us.”
April Stutz, a graduate from the School of Education, said, “It feels so great to graduate.”
“I’m going to open a daycare and go to graduate school,” she said with a laugh. “More school.”
Craig Washington said he enjoyed the ceremony overall, but he said it was a little long.
“It feels very good,” he said about graduating. “Four years and it’s all come down to this. I plan to relax now after four years of hard work.”
His father, Charles Washington, chimed in, saying, “He’s gonna get a job.”
After the ceremony, the convocation ceremonies for individual schools and colleges took place throughout the campus and Boston.