Doctor gives BC grads a prescription

NEWTON -- Paul Farmer, a physician known for his humanitarian work in Haiti, yesterday exhorted the Boston College Class of 2005 to take action to better the world, holding up as a model Romeo Dallaire, his fellow honorary degree recipient. Dallaire, a former UN peacekeeper, tried to awaken the international community to the horrors of genocide in Rwanda.

''To do nothing is also to act, so act affirmatively by making things happen, not just letting them happen," Farmer told the 15,000 people gathered at Alumni Stadium for commencement.

In the stadium, many of the 3,300 graduates shivered, gripped their fists and shaking their feet to keep fingers and toes from going numb in temperatures in the 40s. Farmer jokingly promised to keep his speech brief, ''before it starts snowing heavily."

Also among the honorary degree recipients was Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, who gave a benediction at the close of the ceremony.

Farmer founded the nonprofit organization Partners in Health and is the subject of the 2003 book, ''Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man who would Cure the World," by Tracy Kidder. Farmer joked about students' purported preferences for celebrity entertainers as commencement speakers, but said he had decided his talk would be ''terminally uncool." He focused on his concerns about human rights, and the values he learned growing up Catholic, including the ideas of epiphany, metanoia, a change of heart; and praxis, or action.

''We've all had epiphanies, and if you're lucky you've had quite a few of them here at BC," Farmer said. ''Given the tuition, your parents have every right to be disgruntled if you've had no epiphanies at all. In such cases, my advice is to fake at least one, which adds up, counting tuition and expenses, to close to a quarter million dollars per eureka."

On a more serious note, Farmer described the epiphany that shaped an influential British abolitionist, as well as Dallaire's unsuccessful efforts to try to get the UN to intervene in Rwanda.

''You don't have to be archbishop or head of a peacekeeping force, or even a doctor laboring in some isolated spot," he said. ''You can transform 'road angst' into hopeful action as a teacher or an artist or a baker or as CEO of a company."

Graduates began a new ritual this year of walking as a group from BC's entrance on Linden Lane, past their respective colleges, and on to the stadium. Recommended by a traditions committee, the walk mirrors the procession held at the beginning of freshman year.

According to college spokesman Jack Dunn, students were told to ''set the world aflame," a reference to the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.

Several graduates said that they are as pained to say goodbye to friends and their community as they are excited to start new lives. Emily Lilly from St. Louis is returning to BC in the fall to study for a master's in accounting, but she was still sad to see her undergraduate years come to an end.

Lilly stayed up Sunday night to watch the sunrise, a senior class tradition that she described as ''a solid hour of lots of tears."

In addition to Farmer, Dallaire, and O'Malley, BC also awarded honorary degrees to Sister Janet Eisner, president of Emmanuel College; Norman C. Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation's only historically black, Catholic university; and Sara Martinez Tucker, president and chief executive of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com.