Some wore highly decorated mortar boards. Some carried balloons and cameras. And others sported feather boas, sunglasses and large smiles.

Filing through the doors of Kansas University’s Memorial Campanile, thousands of KU graduates took part in the traditional “walk down the hill” ceremony Sunday.

The graduates, wearing black robes, took about a hour to file into KU’s Memorial Stadium in front of friends and families.

And then they heard their farewell from KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, who sported a wide-brimmed straw hat with his own black robe.

“The perspiration dripping down your face is a reminder of all those academic challenges you sweated through,” Hemenway said. “The walk in those gowns down the hill symbolizes your steady march toward graduation.”

Hemenway told the students that while at other universities, students graduate, at KU, they walk down the hill.

“The walk is the ceremony and no one walks alone,” the chancellor said.

¢KU Commencement 2003 photo gallery¢Text of chancellor’s 2003 commencement address¢List of KU graduates¢More graduation stories

He also gave the graduates some tongue-in-cheek advice, adding several anecdotes not included in his prepared remarks,

Hemenway also made a reference to the controversy about KU’s defense of a sex education class that some Kansas legislators sought, unsuccessfully, to shut down.

“Let’s stand up and defend our state,” he said. “Don’t take any guff from that smart-aleck in the Atlanta airport who says, ‘You’re from Kansas? Isn’t that where they tried to ban evolution last year and this year they want to outlaw sex?'” Hemenway said, getting laughs, whistles, whoops and applause from the gathering.

Hemenway had one final piece of serious wisdom he wanted to pass on.

“When you leave this stadium today, with your KU degree in hand, commit yourself to making a better world. Live with a free and caring intellect, imagining a world where we do not build boundaries between people; a world where race does not divide, where sex do not exclude, where nationality is a source of pride, not fuel for stereotypes,” he said. “A wise man once told me, ‘No one on this earth has any choice about the color they were born with. If diversity is good enough for God, it ought to be good enough for us.'”

Others speaking at the ceremony included Jack Wempe, chair of the Kansas Board of Regents, who said he hoped each student identified with at least one of their instructors.

Wempe said he also wished the not only the promise of success, “but also the joy of sensing a purpose as part of a larger community.” He said he hoped they would get involved in social services.

Wempe also said they should retain their idealism, because those who do, “seem to march to a better drum.”

Robert L. Driscoll, national president of the KU Alumni Association, encouraged students to keep in touch through the alumni association’s programs and publications.