As strains of "Danny Boy" chimed out from Harkness Tower and rain kept up its staccato beat against a canopy of umbrellas, thousands of parents, friends, graduates and faculty poured (pun intended) onto Old Campus for Yale's 302nd commencement exercises.
Neither the relentless deluge nor the stepped-up security at the entry gates put a damper on the celebration. Indeed, within the chair-lined field of Old Campus, the atmosphere was circus-like as Yale's Concert Band struck up a sparkling medley of marches and the colorful procession continued. Also reminiscent of the aura of the Big Top was the convoy of wheelbarrows that rolled in heaped with water-absorbing mulch and the bright blue of the plastic ponchos that ushers handed guests along with their commencement programs.
Every generation was represented in the audience -- from camera-toting great-grandparents, sometimes in wheelchairs, to infants slumbering in plastic-tented strollers. The bright sarongs and glittering saris that peaked out from sheaths of rainwear and the many fresh floral leis festooned on black graduation robes added an international air to the massive sea of umbrellas.
University Chaplain Frederick Jerome Streets opened the Commencement with a sad reminder of the tragedy the Yale community had sustained earlier in the year.
"This year has been one of unfortunate loss for Yale," Streets told the audience, invoking the names of the four students -- Kyle Burnat '05, Andrew Dwyer '06, Sean Fenton '04 and Nicholas Grass '05 -- who were killed in an automobile accident in January.
Streets' benedictory prayer for this year's Commencement was a plea for tolerance. "Help us all to remember that our hearts are bigger than our beliefs or nationalities," Streets intoned. "Increase our capacity to respect one another and diminish all forms of violence in our world."
His invocation ended in the hopeful spirit that the word "commencement" connotes: "Those whom we are sending forth into the larger world have ideals that give us hope for the future. ... We pray that they will fulfill their promise. Give them wisdom, grant them peace and sustain them as they continue their journey.
"Perhaps remembering that the rain falls on the just and unjust alike will console you," Streets quipped to the water-logged throng.
President Richard C. Levin announced that the ceremonies conferring 2,855 degrees would be abridged owing to the weather. The graduate and professional school degrees were presented "en masse," to avoid the 11 separate presentations for each school, while the 1,380 candidates for bachelor's degrees were introduced as usual, by Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead.
Brodhead's traditional presentation of the graduating class to the President was met with such exuberant and sustained cheering, that the Dean had to remind the revelers that their rejoicing was premature. Indeed, their degrees were only confirmed when the President gave the official proclamation, "By the authority vested in me, I confer upon you the bachelor's degrees in Yale College as designated by the Dean and admit you to all their rights and responsibilities."
Of the 1,713 advance degrees conferred by the Graduate and Professional Schools, 238 were awarded provisionally by the Law School. This status was not a result of the disruption caused by an explosion earlier in the week at the Law School, but occurs yearly, as degrees are not voted on by the school's faculty until June.
In keeping with a time-honored tradition, the identity of honor degree recipients was kept secret until the morning of Commencement. The 11 honorees this year included two Nobel Laureates, a Supreme Court Justice and one of the nation's most renowned entertainers. The unique contribution made by individual honorees was cited with each presentation. (See page 4A.)
This year's honorees were publisher and human rights advocate Robert Louis Bernstein; Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Sydney Brenner; performer and humanitarian Bill Cosby; noted legal scholar John Hart Ely; renowned AIDS researcher Anthony S. Fauci; award-winning architect Norman Foster; Supreme Court Justice and women's rights advocate Ruth Bader Ginsburg; leading Jewish theologian David Hartman; groundbreaking historian Nell Irvin Painter; Polish conductor and composer Krzysztof Penderecki; and Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.
Though the Commencement ceremonies had been abridged to about a half-hour, there was no shortage of jubilation as the graduates filed out of Old Campus to go to the next round of separate ceremonies hosted by the residential colleges and graduate and professional schools. While the rain did not abate, most people seemed to take it in stride as they stopped to chat and pose for pictures.
One parent, whose head was uncovered, seemed particularly oblivious to the elements. "I'm from Seattle," he said. "I love the rain."
-- By Dorie Baker
C O M M E N C E M E N T
2 0 0 3
Yale Celebrates 302nd Graduation
Baccalaureate Address
Honorary Degrees
Senior Class Day
Teaching Prizes
Scholastic Prizes
David Everett Chantler Prize
Roosevelt L. Thompson Prize
William H. McKim Prize
Athletic Department Awards
Robert E. Lewis Award for Intramural Sports
Wilbur Cross Medals
Reception with President Richard C. Levin
ROTC Commissioning
Other Undergraduate Awards and Honors
Graduate School Awards and Honors
Commencement Photo Gallery
Graduation: The Video
T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Yale Celebrates 302nd Graduation
Trip expands Yale ties to South Korea
Koplan elected as alumni fellow
YSN researcher to head state's VA Department
International festival returns June 12-28
Edelson named director of Yale Cancer Center
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
Alumnus donates first novel by an African-American slave
Reunion events to explore world's public health crises
British Art Center acquisitions honor its founding 25 years ago
'Behold, the Sea Itself' showcases center's collection of marine art
Graduate/Professional International Study Grants
YCIAS offers Summer Institutes for educators
Corrections
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