Nearly 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students gathered in Boston College’s Alumni Stadium Monday morning for its 148th commencement ceremony, as the class of 2024 sat in rows of chairs under a cloudy sky, beside banners marked with the Jesuit school’s maroon and gold colors.
Traditional pomp and circumstance filled the Chestnut Hill stadium, with the school’s choir, The University Chorale, leading in song while graduates looked on and deans sat royally on the stage.
Though other Boston-area schools, including Northeastern University, Emerson College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, have battled with recent turmoil over student protests of the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza — some of which have led to disruptions of commencement ceremonies — Boston College’s commencement proceeded without interruption.
Still, the tensions gripping neighboring universities, and colleges across the country, were not ignored by speakers.
“This commencement is a time for us to consider how we can and must respond to current and future issues, not solely as individuals but also as members of a global community,” BC’s president, the Rev. William P. Leahy, said during his welcoming remarks. “Today, we are especially mindful of the war in Ukraine, ongoing conflict in Gaza, and continued violence in Haiti and Sudan, situations bringing misery and suffering to millions of people.”
The ceremony’s main speaker, Cardinal Stephen Chow, Bishop of Hong Kong, also addressed the current climate on campuses.
“None of us gathered here today are likely ignorant about the recent tensions among university campuses in the United States and elsewhere,” Chow said. “We can appreciate Boston College for being bold enough to hold a live commencement exercise during this time.”
Applause and cheers rang out following his statement.
Chow was one of five distinguished individuals to receive an honorary degree from the college this year. Leahy said the honorees were chosen because they “promote the common good and greater glory of God.”
The recipients, who stood and accepted their degrees, included Dana Barros, a BC graduate and 13-year NBA player; Sister Maria Teresa De Loera Lopez of the Congregation of Catholic Teachers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; Dr. James O’Connell, president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless; and Mary Skipper, superintendent of the Boston Public Schools.
Leahy introduced Chow’s speech by commenting on how he has dedicated his life to promoting education and the Catholic faith. As Bishop of Hong Kong, Chow has “worked diligently to improve relations between the Vatican and China, which have lacked diplomatic ties for more than 70 years,” Leahy said. Chow became the first Hong Kong bishop in nearly four decades to visit the Chinese capital.
“The current tensions happening at university campuses are not unfamiliar to us living in Hong Kong,” he said. “This [reconciliation and healing] process may take several years, or even decades. We must start with the promotion of dialogue and constructive action among parties of different stances.”
He encouraged graduates to move forth into the world with an intention of improving what he called a “badly wounded natural environment.”
“I believe unity in plurality is what we want to embrace, not an oppositional mentality, and certainly not violence,” he said.
Chow spoke of what he sees as a two side-ism narrative, which prevents both meaningful dialogue and sustainable peace — in both the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and divisiveness within the global church. He advised graduates to be the generation to bridge that gap and become more pluralistic as a society.
“I believe very few people, if any, are consistent across every single domain, and that includes myself,” he said. “Being able to take in people as they are, not who they ought to be, will allow us a greater capacity to love as God loves us.”
As deans invited graduates in their respective schools to rise for the conferral of their degree, spirits were lifted, and family and friends from the stands applauded.
For the class of 2024, college began amid the COVID-19 pandemic and is ending at a time of global unsettledness. Many of the graduates did not have a high school graduation ceremony.
James Saladino, a Carroll School of Management graduate from Long Island, N.Y., said he had mixed emotions about graduating during such a time.
“I think it’s definitely good we were able to have a ceremony that went pretty smooth,” he said. “It’s a good thing that everyone came together and had commencement a normal way.”
The commencement concluded with another round of traditional fanfare, while students were instructed to walk out to a rendition of “Sweet Caroline,” a Boston College favorite.
Reilly O’Shaughnessy, an accounting graduate, called graduating today “surreal.” While weaving out of the maze of students, she said she “can’t believe that this is happening.”
She stayed up the night before with her friends, reminiscing on their time at Boston College and how the conclusion of their high school experience and start of college was marred by COVID-19.
“Graduation was here in the blink of an eye, especially starting during COVID,” she said. “Today is a culmination of not just our time at BC, but also as students and now entering the real world.”
Alexa Coultoff can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @alexacoultoff.