Rain Soaks Graduates at Morning Commencement Exercises

Driving rain turned Tercentenary Theatre into a swamp during morning Commencement exercises today, soaking thousands of graduates and their families who crowded into the Yard under tight security.

In a striking break with tradition on a day characterized by centuries-old ritual, the gray clouds that had been gathering all morning let loose with a downpour about a half-hour into the ceremony. The rain continued unabated until a few minutes before the program ended, when it slowed to a drizzle.

A legion of umbrellas sprouted throughout the audience when the rain began to fall during the Senior English Address by Zayed M. Yasin ’02.

Hundreds of people left after the rain started, but many graduates stayed in soaked academic regalia.

Some of the day’s speakers made light of the rain.

“I pray you use all your connections to address the weather,” quipped acting Dean of the Harvard Divinity School William A. Graham in his comments to degree candidates from the school.

The rain clouds were not the only dampers on the proceedings. Scores of students wore red, white and blue ribbons in protest of the address by Yasin, in which he spoke of the meaning of “jihad” from his point of view as an American Muslim. Yasin’s speech, however, garnered one of the longest rounds of applause of the morning. (See related story.)

The Latin Salutatory, delivered by Leah J. Whittington ’01, spoke of the search for truth. Her fanciful account of falling asleep in Widener Library and meeting Socrates in a dream elicited laughs from the graduates who could follow along in Latin or the English translation inserted in the Commencement Day program.

In her speech, Socrates said “there is no greater happiness than to taste one morsel of the truth.”

But on a more somber note, he added, “As Aeneas to Rome, as Moses to the Promised Land, as John Harvard to the blessed banks of the Charles, so you are called to the path of truth.”

The allusions suggested that the search for truth is difficult—Moses died before entering the Promised Land, Aeneas was not able to found Rome and Harvard died of tuberculosis less than a year after landing in Charlestown.

The Graduate English Address by Law School degree candidate Avery W. Gardiner ’97 argued that “logic and analytical reasoning have their limits.” She spoke of her and her friends’ steely, logical initial reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and compared those responses with her mother’s reaction of bursting into tears.

She noted the need for graduates with a rigorous training in analytical thinking to be able to put aside their training and listen their hearts.

The speeches were followed by the awarding of degrees to graduates and honorary degree candidates. University President Lawrence H. Summers awarded 1,569 degrees to College graduates and 6,409 degrees total in his first Commencement as president.

Undergraduate diplomas were distributed later in the afternoon in smaller ceremonies at the Houses.

Hundreds of students and their families were forced to cram into dining halls to avoid the downpour.

As Winthrop House Master Paul Hanson compared college life to a river, he joked about the weather.

"It is appropriate that the sheet of paper I've written my words on is soaking wet," he said.

Later in the afternoon, Summers spoke to a gathering of about 500 members of the Harvard Alumni Association about his priorities in his "freshman year" at the University. He stressed familiar themes about the importance of strengthening undergraduate education, expanding into Allston and investing in scientific research. He concluded with a discussion of his view of veritas and the importance of the “marketplace of ideas.”

At the morning ceremony, security in the Yard was tight. Walk-through metal detectors were set up at most entrances and scores of police with handheld metal detectors randomly re-screened both graduates and friends and family.

At Johnston Gate, a lone Middlesex County sheriff’s deputy used a handheld metal detector to check hundreds of people seeking entrance to the Yard. Even elderly women in wheelchairs were not exempt from a once-over with his beeping wand.

Minutes after the gate opened to the public, the line expanded until it stretched across the driveway and two more officers were called in to assist.

Some Commencement-goers were miffed by the slow pace of the security checks that made the normally block-length lines to enter the Yard even longer.

“I was here at 6:15 and still there was a big line. I wish there was a better way,” said Amalendu Chatterjee, father of graduating Adams House student Avik Chaterjee ’02.

The crowds that made entering the Yard so difficult quickly left when the rain started shortly into the ceremony. By the time Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes gave the closing benediction, the majority of seats were empty. His remarks were mercifully short for those remaining in the audience.

He said only: “God, keep us safe, dry and happy. Amen.”

-Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Jonathan H. Esensten can be reached at esensten@fas.harvard.edu.