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Despite rain and a pervasive chill, Boston College graduated the class of 2009 during the 133rd Commencement Exercises on Monday morning. Family, friends, faculty, and administrators filled Alumni Stadium to celebrate the achievements of the graduates, who huddled under a sea of umbrellas and blankets while many onlookers took cover in Conte Forum as the University bestowed baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral degrees to 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
After the Rev. Michael G. Boughton, S.J., director of the Center for Ignatian Spirituality, gave the invocation, University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., offered welcoming remarks.
He thanked the departing graduates for the contributions they have made to BC over the years they have spent on its campus: "You enlivened our classrooms, theatre, libraries, residence halls, and playing fields. You brought spirit and joy not only to faculty and staff who worked with you at BC but also to people off campus whose lives you touched in your volunteer activities," he said. "Boston College is a different place because you have been part of our community, and we are grateful."
Leahy also advised students to allow their graduation to serve as a looking glass through which to reflect on their calling in life, reminding graduates that "Talent and gifts are to be used responsibly and for the good of others."
In conclusion, he spoke of the "tough global issues" in which the United States is currently embroiled, offering graduates the words of the prophet Jeremiah in consolation: "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
In addition to conferring degrees on undergraduate and graduate students, provost and dean of faculties, Cutberto Garza, presented honorary degrees to five other individuals. Margot Cameron Connell received the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters for her commitment to "the ideals of family, leadership, generosity, and devoted service so admired and valued by our community," Garza said. In addition to mothering six Boston College graduates as the wife of the late William F. Connell, for whom the school of nursing is named, Margot has devoted herself to philanthropic endeavors and serving as the co-chair of the Light the World campaign.
Joseph E. Corcoran was awarded the degree of Doctor of Business Administration for his leadership in the development of mixed-income housing, and for giving "hope and a new beginning to those once trapped in the nation's poorest public housing projects."
Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., was given the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters for his dedication to Biblical scholarship and the 40 books he has published on that subject. The Jesuit of 51 years has taught at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology for almost 40 years, and is not a faculty member at the School of Theology and Ministry.
The University conferred the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters on Carolyn A. Lynch for her bountiful support of charitable efforts in the fields of education, healthcare, and medical research. The namesake of the school of education has also received papal honors for her commitment to Catholic education and the Church.
Benaree Pratt Wiley was given the degree of Doctor of Public Administration for her efforts as "Boston's 'secret weapon' in building leadership diversity," which have advanced people of color to positions of power and influence in Boston's business world.
Finally, acclaimed documentarian Ken Burns, keynote speaker of the exercise, was proclaimed Doctor of Fine Arts. His 20 documentaries and nine books detail topics in American culture that range from baseball to Jazz to the Brooklyn Bridge to the Civil War, which he documented in an 11-hour saga that became the most watched program ever to air on PBS and contributed to his arsenal of honors, which includes 10 Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Academy Award nominations.
In his address, Burns spoke on the importance of regarding history as an ally and a guide as the graduates take on the trials with which the coming years will present them. He advised the class of '09 to reflect on the questions that history lays before them: "What will you choose as your guiding light? Which distant past events, which compelling historical figures will provide you with the greatest help, the most comforting solace, the best examples of wisdom and leadership?" And perhaps most importantly - "What warnings will you heed? Which narrow or dangerous ideologies will you avoid?"
Burns noted that even the memories that the graduates have accrued at Boston College should be regarded as history, a guiding influence that will stay with them for the rest of their lives, and that they should not take lightly the importance of memory and possibility.
Burns turned to the optimistic words of Abraham Lincoln as he encouraged the graduates not to stray from their quest for happiness in the pursuance of baser, cruder instincts, recounting this, what he called a "truly astonishing sentence": "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
As he admonished students against the dangers of the polarized post-Sept. 11 society we live in and against the pitfalls of the isolating and numbing effects of technology, he warned them that they have been "drafted nonetheless into a new union army that must be committed to preserving the values, the sense of humor, the sense of cohesion that have long been our hallmark and beacon," that it is not the responsibility of the graduates to "help clean up this mess."
Above all, and amidst advocacy of American ideals of exceptionalism and disregard for the inadequate dogmas of days past, Burns insisted that the whole must be greater than the sum of its parts. "One plus one, as you have learned in your exhilarating studies, and your faith, sometimes equals three. Follow that seemingly impossible mathematical possibility ... Ask the question: What is that 'more,' the difference between the sum of the parts and the whole? And pursue that 'more' for the rest of your life." And this "more," he said, can only be attained through the development of a community of allies.
He echoed this sentiment as he addressed the graduates directly: "When it rains, share your umbrella. And do not lose your enthusiasm. In its brief etymology, the word enthusiasm means 'God in us.' Remember, most of all, that only love multiplies."
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