Lucchino urges graduates to 'be bold,' act generously

May 19 -- Bright skies and an upbeat message from Red Sox President Larry Lucchino greeted the Class of 2008 at Boston University's main commencement ceremony on Nickerson Field Sunday afternoon.

Lucchino mixed wisdom and wit, urging graduates to fight injustice and act boldly, and also crediting graduates with the World Series wins the Sox picked up during the leaving undergraduate class's tenure near Fenway.

"Causation or correlation, your professors may ask," Lucchino said of the 2004 and 2007 wins. "We know you guys helped make it happen."

Lucchino offered the more than 6,200 graduates and 20,000 guests -- gathered for the university-wide ceremony before going to individual school graduation ceremonies -- simple advice on how to get by in life and business: "Smile, laugh and be pleasant," he said.

Touching upon weightier topics, Lucchino encouraged graduates to be open to the "rich, open, diverse, multi-colored, multi-ethnic, multi-textured, multi-cultural experience" around them.

"Declaring that all groups are the same is a deceit," he said. "Believing that some ethnic groups are better than others is a moral disgrace."

Choosing lessons from a French statesman, a film critic and baseball's greats, Lucchino offered his experiences as a top 10 list. He presented baseball player Jackie Robinson, who dared to cross racial lines in the major league, as a model for graduates to take action.

"Hold within yourself a capacity for outrage at injustice," Lucchino said. "Be confident that if you fight long enough and hard enough, you too can make a difference. And like Jackie Robinson, you can do it with dignity."

Quoting a professor who once told him everything before age 30 is "preface," Lucchino told graduates the key to happiness is generosity.

"There is a Chinese proverb that applies -- isn't there always?" he said. "Roughly, it says that if you want happiness for an hour, take a nap, but if you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody."

Student speaker Jennifer Quigley, a University Professors Program graduate, also made a case for appreciating diversity and a call to action.

Quigley cited her experience with BU's religiously, intellectually and ethnically diverse community as a highlight of her undergraduate experience.

Addressing the label that has been stuck to her generation, "the Millenials," Quigley challenged assumptions about young people being "maladjusted." Making an example of BU alumnus Martin Luther King Jr., Quigley said graduates should be maladjusted to social injustice and the status quo.

"I encourage us to take up the mantle of maladjustment and to make our own maladjusted future," she said.

BU President Robert Brown presented honorary degrees to Lucchino, philanthropist Earle Chiles and J. Crew chief executive officer Millard Drexler, telling the retail giant and School of Management alumnus, "You have taught people to dance in khakis, shop online and have made America better dressed."

Tennis legend Billie Jean King and William Hayling, who finished his undergraduate career at BU at age 19 and went on to a career in medicine and founded the mentoring group 100 Black Men, also received honorary degrees.

Metcalf Awards for Excellence in Teaching were presented to College of Arts and Sciences Romance studies professor T. Jefferson Kline and School of Law professor Andrew Kull. CAS writing program professor Allison Adair was awarded the Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching, the university's highest honor for instructors.

Brown drew attention to the importance of the graduating class and the day. "You are the future for this university, for this country and for mankind," he said.