Hippies Graduate College, Finally

Four decades late, members of Boston University’s class of 1970 finally got their graduation ceremony this weekend. The commencement—and final exams—were cancelled 40 years ago amid nationwide protests against the Vietnam war and violence on the Kent State campus, and attendees brought a bit of that sentiment as they walked the graduation line wearing tie-dye and bearing clenched fists or peace signs. The university said the ceremony was not an apology for the cancellation in 1970, but merely a way of reaching out to alums. Boomer nostalgia was in full bloom: speakers discussed Vietnam, and a soloist, backed by an acoustic guitar, let the class in singing the Beatles’ “Let It Be.” “How did I become a suburban housewife?” one former student wondered.