STILLWATER, OKLA. ? President Bush advised college graduates on Saturday to use technology but not become enslaved by it.

“Science offers the prospect of eventual cures for terrible diseases – and temptations to manipulate life and violate human dignity,” Bush said during commencement exercises at Oklahoma State University. “With the Internet, you can communicate instantly with someone halfway across the world – and isolate yourself from your family and your neighbors.”

The nation’s young generation will wrestle to resolve these dilemmas, he said.

“My advice: Harness the promise of technology without becoming slaves to technology. My advice is that science serves the cause of humanity and not the other way around,” the president said.

After the speech, some graduates said they couldn’t make out clearly what Bush said because of an echo in the audio system at Boone Pickens Stadium.

“I couldn’t really hear it because the sound was so bad,” said Michelle Ward, who earned a degree in biomedical sciences.

Bush highlighted recent economic gains and told the graduates that an improving job market is giving them more job opportunities.

From left, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry, President Bush, and David J. Schmidly president of Oklahoma State University, sing the national anthem prior to the commencement exercises at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, May 6, 2006. President Bush delivered the commencement address.

“The job market for college graduates is the best it has been in years,” he said. “This economy of ours is strong and so you’ll have more jobs to choose from than previous classes and your starting salaries will be higher. And the opportunities beyond are only limited by the size of your dreams.”

Those in the 2,700-member class that gathered in Boone Pickens Stadium wore plastic slickers to keep their gowns dry from drizzle.

Bush spoke from a covered platform to a crowd of about 20,000 people, many of whom wore orange raincoats made available to those in the stadium. Protesters staged a peaceful demonstration outside.

Laughter and applause greeted Bush’s reference to the university’s cowboy mascot: “If you read the papers, you know that when some want to criticize me, they call me a cowboy. … This cowboy is proud to be standing amidst of a lot of other cowboys.”