During its Commencement ceremony, the class of 2003 was encouraged to respect the ideal of free speech — and subsequently challenged to uphold that ideal after its featured Commencement speaker made antiwar remarks.

The college conferred degrees on 1,350 graduate and undergraduate candidates at its 108th Commencement Sunday, May 18. A rarity for Ithaca weather, the sun shone brightly throughout the Butterfield Stadium ceremony. But the buoyant mood turned overcast as audience members booed and several graduates walked off the field after Commencement speaker Ben Cohen, former owner of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., called the war against Iraq “a waste of life, money and national stature.”

Cohen asked the Class of 2003 to continue Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s work and turn their attention to fighting poverty and militarism. He said the United States' annual military budget is enough to fully fund several humanitarian programs as well as feed starving children worldwide.

“We've got to stand up and do our patriotic duty as Americans and say 'no, this is not the way,'“ Cohen said. “Our country needs to learn to measure its strength not by how many people it can kill but by how many it can feed, clothe, house and take care of.”

Graduate student Thomas Bailey was one of several students who left the field mid-ceremony. Bailey said Cohen has the right to express his opinion, but that the message was inappropriate for the occasion.

“This is graduation,” he said. “It's not a time to bash America … it's a day to celebrate.

“This was a slap in the face. I didn’t come to Ithaca College for a slap in the face. I’m not going to let this ruin my graduation.”

Graduate student Adam Mazutto also walked off the field, drawing cheers from parents and onlookers in the bleachers.

“You don’t have to sit there and listen to this,” he shouted into the crowd. “It’s his free speech to say it, and it’s my free speech to get up and leave.”

President Peggy R. Williams had introduced Cohen and his partner, Jerry Greenfield, as an example of a corporation that has done well as a business and as a humanitarian organization.

Greenfield, who spoke first, talked about how the company grew out of a converted gas station in Vermont. He said that he and Cohen tried to be ice cream people first and businesspeople second so that they could use their business to do some good.

In honor of the Class of 2003, Greenfield said, Peace Pops ice cream bars would be handed out after the ceremony.

“We're only sorry that we couldn't personally scoop ice cream cones for everybody,” he said. Senior Class President Maureen Devine was the only speaker to acknowledge the audience's reaction to Cohen's remarks.

“This is a real speech to celebrate the real reason we're here today,” she said. Devine encouraged graduates to keep in touch with their fellow students, the ones who have shaped their lives and made their college experiences ones worth treasuring. She said these important people tend to become forgotten over time as life in general gets in the way.

“I urge you all to do your best to avoid this phenomenon,” she said. “Embrace the people and experiences you have shared here at Ithaca College and treat them with the same amount of importance as every test, paper or really important class you may have taken here.”

Officers then presented the Senior Class Gift ó a total of $25,109. Of those funds, $20,465 went toward the class project, a clock that will be constructed on the Academic Quad.

Williams told graduates they had a responsibility to serve as an inspiration for critical, thoughtful and civil dialogue. She urged them to think about what they believe in and what they stand for.

“You also have a responsibility, as an educated citizen, to continue to be informed, to continue to share your thoughts, to continue to invite and listen to the perspectives of others - even when those differ from your own,” Williams said.

She said graduates should beware of pressuring themselves to answer the question “what will I do with the rest of my life?”

“Answers will be revealed as you continue to explore, question and experience life,” she said. “The ability to find comfort and confidence in ambiguity does not suggest that you are without direction, but rather that you are always charting your direction and making choices.”

Opinion Editor Joe Geraghty contributed to this article.