Skies were clear and temperatures mild on May 21 as 3,504 graduating students, joined by families, faculty, trustees, honorary degree recipients, and alumni marshals from the 50th and 25th anniversary classes, celebrated Boston College’s 131st annual Commencement Exercises. This year’s graduates come from every state in the union and 49 foreign nations on six continents. (By comparison, 1957’s graduating class, celebrating its golden anniversary this year, hailed from 10 states—Michigan being the most distant—and four foreign countries, all in the Western Hemisphere.)
The University conferred 2,289 undergraduate degrees, 1,408 of them from the College of Arts and Sciences and the remainder from the professional schools and the Woods College of Advancing Studies. Among advanced degree recipients, 147 earned doctorates, 251 became doctors of law, and 817 received master’s degrees or certificates of advanced studies.
@BC presents a slideshow of photographs taken during the morning of Commencement Day, with a background of audio vignettes from the proceedings at Alumni Stadium in the following order:
- Boston College Band, directed by Sebastian Bonaiuto
- From the welcoming remarks of President William P. Leahy, SJ
(2 audio vignettes) - Reading of the degree in Latin by Cutberto Garza, provost and dean of faculties
- From the address to graduates by John M. (Jack) Connors, Jr. ’63, recipient of an honorary doctorate in business administration
- Patricia H. Noonan ’07, singing “Hail Alma Mater”
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