Several thousand new University of Virginia graduates have had a different type of walk down the Lawn. The participants in Saturday’s ceremony were the newest alumni of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Like countless Wahoos before them, they brought colorful balloons and other items, and had glitzy items on mortar boards. Governor McAuliffe was Saturday’s featured speaker and told the new grads this has been an especially difficult year for Virginia’s flagship university. He told them they have experienced what it’s like to be at the center of the public eye but they managed to succeed.