The Boston University Class of 2025 covered Nickerson Field in a sea of red and white gowns Sunday afternoon for the 152nd All-University Commencement ceremony. 

This year’s celebration welcomed one of the largest graduating classes in BU history and drew the largest commencement crowd in over three decades. It also marked the first commencement BU President Melissa Gilliam presided over.

As the ceremony began, thousands of graduates marched to their seats while the BU Brass Choir, led by Director of Athletic Bands Aaron Goldberg, filled the stadium with celebratory music.

Student speaker Jason Wexler, a dual-degree graduate from the College of Communication and Questrom School of Business, addressed his classmates onstage with the message: say “yes” to new opportunities. 

“Small decisions can shape your college experience in ways you’d never expect,” he said. “That’s what makes saying ‘yes’ so important. It gives us opportunities we would have never thought possible.” 

Wexler reflected on the challenges faced by the Class of 2025 as the first to fully return to campus after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The Class of 2025 was handed challenges no one could have prepared us for,” he said. “Like the escalators of Warren Towers, everything seemed to be at a perpetual standstill, but an escalator can never truly break. It just becomes stairs, and the only way to move forward is one step at a time.”

Wexler closed his remarks with a challenge for the Class of 2025 — to carry the “say ‘yes’” mindset into life beyond campus.

“It’s such a simple word, but it’s the most powerful word we have,” he said. “I can’t wait to see where ‘yes’ takes us next in the world.”

Actress and producer Emily Deschanel, a 1998 BU alumna, delivered the Commencement address, emphasizing the power of empathy drawn from her career in the arts.

“I’m an actor. I just pretend for a living,” she said. “Then, I realized ‘pretending’ is one word for what actors do, only one word. What we really do is try to understand people, have empathy for them.” 

Deschanel, who received an honorary degree as a Doctor of Fine Arts at the ceremony, said empathy is not a weakness, but a way to understand others and respond with authenticity. 

“Empathy is what inspires action and leads to compassionate change in the world,” she said. “Empathy isn’t just what you offer others. It’s what helps you carry yourself forward.”

The ceremony also included the conferral of several honorary degrees, introduced by Gilliam. 

Award-winning journalist and physician Sheri Fink and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sheldon Lee Glashow both received a Doctor of Science. 

Rebeca Carrillo Martinez, chief justice of the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals, received a Doctor of Laws, and Dominic Timothy Moulden, an artist, community organizer and educator, received a Doctor of Humane Letters.

As the ceremony drew to a close, Gilliam offered graduates a message of reassurance and hope. 

“Class of 2025, you are the future of this university, this country, this world,” she said. “Even as the challenges in front of us seem daunting, I am optimistic because you will be among the next generation of leaders, and many of you are leaders already.” 

Gilliam concluded the ceremony  by reminding the newly graduated students that BU will always be a part of them.

“As you leave Nickerson Field, you join a long line of Boston University graduates stretching over time,” she said. “Once a Terrier, always a Terrier.”