THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, May 22, 1995                   TAG: 9505220061
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

GRADUATES ACROSS STATE RECEIVE WORDS OF WISDOM AT CEREMONIES

Pulitzer-prize winning columnist William Raspberry begged the graduating class of the University of Virginia to save the world, which he said is becoming ``a mean, distrustful and very dangerous society.''

``I simply cannot pass up the opportunity to try to impress upon you who will shortly be our leaders and policy makers the importance of deciding here and now to do your bit - and more - to make the world a little better, a little safer, a little more civil for all of us,'' Raspberry said to the 4,345 graduates in Charlottesville.

The only path to a safer world is passion tempered with humility, Raspberry said.

At Hollins College in Roanoke, 1973 alumna M.L. Flynn told the 255 graduates of the private women's school that her professors taught her that ``women not only matter, but could make a difference.''

``This is a man's world, but the more women who express their opinions, contribute their ideas, roll up their sleeves and play to win will make it a better workplace for all of us,'' Flynn said.

Hollins President Jane M. O'Brien announced that Frank Batten, chairman of Norfolk-based Landmark Communications, which owns The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, and his wife, Jane, a 1958 Hollins graduate, will donate $2 million for scholarships. The pledge is the largest in the history of the 153-year-old college.

Alumna Dr. Katherine U. Takvorian addressed the 109 graduates at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar. She is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts medical school and associate chief of rheumatology at Medical Center of Central Massachusetts.

She told the graduates they should lead ``real lives,'' defining success on their own terms. Using the lives of two of her patients and herself as examples, Takvorian said, ``We have made `real choices' at pivotal times in our lives which purposefully changed our futures. We have taken risks, and we have made difficult decisions that led us into the unknown.''

``Our decisions, however, have led to better lives, by our definitions, for ourselves and our families,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Students react to the declaration Sunday that they have graduated

from the University of Virginia. Columnist William Raspberry

implored the 4,345 graduates to help save the world.

by CNB