THE CEREMONY: UNC-Chapel Hill commencement at Kenan Stadium

BY THE NUMBERS: 5,509 graduates in all; 3,492 bachelor's degrees, 1,214 master's degrees, 204 doctoral and 599 professional degrees and certificates.

RAIN-DRIVEN DIPLOMAS: Retiring university Chancellor James Moeser, presiding over his eighth and final commencement, elicited throaty cheers of joy and weighty sighs of relief with two simple sentences.

"We're going to go straight to the conferral of degrees," he announced at the outset of what turned out to be just a 20-minute ceremony. "This may be the shortest commencement exercise in the history of the university."

It was a soaked, bedraggled group that filed into the stadium. Several forward-thinking grads wore garbage bags over their gowns. A few young ladies, perhaps unprepared for the unexpectedly cool, damp weather, wore flip-flops on their feet and gloves on their hands.

One graduate resolutely tucked a forlorn-looking balloon declaring "Congratulations!" under her umbrella as she headed for her seat.

Said graduating senior David Cheshire of Greensboro: "I guess ... [the rain] makes it more memorable. But I do wish it was sunny."

TRADITIONS: The rain-shortened ceremony still included a couple of longtime Carolina standards. The Bell Tower outside Kenan Stadium chimed "Hark the Sound," as graduates approached. Once degrees were conferred, the exercise ended, as it always does, with the Clef Hangers, a student singing group, belting out James Taylor's "Carolina In My Mind."

Eyes misted.

WHO SPOKE: The abbreviated ceremony featured just two speakers, Moeser and Ashley Shores -- the senior class president.

"I share your sense of nostalgia and reluctance to let go," said Moeser, who will take a one-year sabbatical and return to teach. "I, too, am graduating."

The shadow of Eve Carson, the popular student body president whose killing earlier this year shook the campus, hung a bit over the ceremony. A university spokesman said Carson was awarded a bachelor's degree with highest distinction in her double majors, biology and political science. Many students wore buttons of remembrance bearing her name.

Shores, the senior class president, remembered her fondly and read from a statement Carson's father, Bob, had written to the UNC student body.

" 'Go! Be excited about the endless possibilities your diploma grants,' " Shores read. " 'Set forth today and go.' "

WHO DIDN'T SPEAK: Along with the usual avalanche of generic well wishes from dignitaries, graduates Sunday did not hear from opera singer Jessye Norman, who was scheduled to deliver the commencement address before the rain truncated the ceremony.

--Eric Ferreri

Duke University

THE CEREMONY: Duke University commencement, Wallace Wade Stadium

NUMBER OF DEGREES AWARDED: More than 4,000

COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER: Barbara Kingsolver, bestselling author of "The Poisonwood Bible."

WHAT SHE SAID: Kingsolver first gave permission for graduates to make an exit as the raindrops quickened. Then she gave a sobering 24-minute speech that focused on a degraded environment where people are becoming increasingly isolated and economic progress threatens the earth.

"And so we find ourselves in the chapter of history I would entitle: 'Isolation and Efficiency, and How They Came Around to Bite Us in the Backside.' Because it's looking that way. We're a world at war, ravaged by disagreements, a bizarrely globalized people in which the extravagant excesses of one culture wash up as famine or flood on the shores of another. Even the architecture of our planet is collapsing under the weight of our efficient productivity. ... Previous generations rarely asked about the hidden costs. We put them on layaway. You don't get to do that. The bill has come due. ...

"In the last 30 years our material wealth has increased in this country, but our self-described happiness has steadily declined. Elsewhere, the people who consider themselves very happy are not in the very poorest nations, as you might guess, nor in the very richest. The winners are Mexico, Ireland, Puerto Rico, the kinds of places we identify with extended family, noisy villages, a lot of dancing. The happiest people are the ones with the most community. You can take that to the bank."

MUCH-NEEDED LIGHT MOMENT: Graduates Matt Zafirovski and Kyle Knight, who were freshman roommates, gave a two-man speech. The world has changed dramatically since the class of 2008 arrived at Duke, Zafirovski commented. "For example, Pluto is no longer a planet."

In a back-and-forth style comedy routine, Matt and Kyle talked about their trials and triumphs at Duke, including the time they went out for the men's basketball team.

Matt: "In truth, our paths were wildly different, but we remained friends and we found a way to play in Cameron after all."

Kyle: "We made the women's basketball practice team. Abby Waner, you can't stop Matt Zafirovski! You can only hope to contain him."

MUST-HAVE ACCESSORIES: Umbrella or trash-bag raincoat.

ONE GRADUATE: Mia Bolling of Richmond, Va., is ready to move on to the next step, she said, which is a few years in the working world before applying to medical school. She was relieved when the ceremony was over. "I was wet and cold, fingers and toes all numb," she said, dripping but happy. "It would have been even better on a sunny and warm day."

-- Jane Stancill

Meredith College

THE CEREMONY: Meredith College commencement, held in the back-up rain facility, Dorton Arena, at the State Fairgrounds.

NUMBER OF GRADUATES: 379

MAIN SPEAKER: Betty Ray McCain, former secretary of the state Department of Cultural Resources, from 1993 to 2001.

WHAT SHE SAID: Under the theme of "Great Expectations," McCain told graduates they should be caring and compassionate, continue learning, be loyal to each other and their school, be leaders, be realistic, be enthusiastic and have faith.

"It's not going to be easy," she told the class. "It will require the best you have to offer."

And McCain showed a sense of humor about the last-minute change of venue, referencing this month's Democratic Jefferson-Jackson Dinner at Dorton Arena, at which Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama spoke.

"You may be the only graduating class in Meredith history who had two political candidates come nine days before their graduation as their warm-up act," she said.

YES, YES, OF COURSE YOU'RE PROUD OF THEM: Allen Page, vice president for academic programs, drew an appreciative chuckle from the crowd when he began the diploma presentation ceremony by saying, "We ask you to hold your applause until the end. However, there will be no effort to suppress spontaneous expressions of enthusiasm for individual students."

HIGH FASHION: Nearly a third of the graduates decorated their caps as an expression of celebration and a way to help their loved ones pick them out of the crowd.

Students chose to adorn their caps with their initials, graduation year, messages to their parents and even messages in foreign languages (such as "J'ai fini!," French for "I finished!").

Raleigh resident Nikki Dublin Turner may have had the most unusual cap. Earning a degree in dance, Turner divided her cap into quarters and devoted one to her husband, who is serving in Iraq, one to her family, one to dance and one to God.

"I've been working on this degree for six years," she said. "I thought I should make it special."

BEST OVERHEARD CONVERSATION: Embracing her friend in a hug, St. Louis native Ashley Vaughan declared to Cary resident Preethi Sriram, "We're graduates!"

"I know!" Sriram cried back.

"We're alumni now," concurred Jordy Featherston of Richmond, Va.

"Yeah, it's scary," Vaughan replied.

SUNNY SPIRITS: Graduates and their families seemed to take Sunday's rain in stride.

"It rained on my brother's graduation last year," said Kate Robinson, a Garner resident who got her child development degree Sunday. "We're pros at this."

-- Sue Stock

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