Compassion is the key to overcoming the world’s struggle for liberty and equality, civil rights leader Julian Bond said at Ohio State Thursday. Bond, who was arrested during the 1960s for sitting in at the then-segregated cafeteria in Atlanta City Hall, was the keynote speaker at the College of Humanities’ Baccalaureate Ceremony.”Bond is a person who has a lot of things to say to people in humanities, since the days of civil rights and these days as well,” said Melinda Nelson, associate dean for the College of Humanities.The event, held at Weigel Hall, was the college’s fourth annual celebration of the achievements of students, faculty, staff and alumni.”The Baccalaureate is meant to give the graduates inspiration since they’re leaving, and Bond is an inspirational speaker who will give us the right message,” Nelson said. “It’s also a way of saying farewell to the graduates, and it allows us to celebrate and make public the accomplishments of students and faculty in the college,” she said.Bond explained that in a few short years the graduates would leave this century and enter a new era, where they will need all of the optimism they can muster. “I hope it’s an era where you will feed the hungry, conquer racism and spend more money on butter than guns,” he said. “It is up to you to make the protections we have more secure and to expand them for those who will come after you.”OSU President E. Gordon Gee, who spoke briefly to the graduates, said, “The world is changing rapidly and radically, and is full of cults, car bombs, revolution and racism,” It’s a challenging time in which you will be lost, but knowledge alone is not enough.”W. Marvin Dulaney and Robert L. Stine, two OSU alumni, received the annual Humanities Alumni Society Awards of Distinction at the ceremony. The award recognizes alumni for their outstanding personal and professional achievements and for having brought distinction to the college, said Albert E. T. Wittkopp, president of the society.Dulaney, who received his master’s degree in 1974 and a doctorate in history in 1984, is the director of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. He is also director of African American Studies at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.”I am thrilled to receive this award, but I don’t do the things I do for awards or honors, but, because they are the right things to do,” Dulaney said. Stine received his bachelor’s degree in English in 1965 and is the best-selling author of the “Goosebumps” and “Fear Street” series of novels.”I am surprised to be receiving this award, because I spent all my time at the university making fun of it,” Stine said. “It was this university that allowed me to find my passion for writing, and it was responsible for my learning and growing as a writer.”The society also awarded Outstanding Student Awards to Garrett Heysel and Will Pletcher.Heysel, a doctorate candidate in the Department of French and Italian, serves as the assistant director of the Undergraduate French Language Program.Pletcher, an undergraduate majoring in history, serves on OSU’s Judicial Panel and Committee on Academic Misconduct and the Humanities Student Advisory Group.”This has been a year of truly remarkable achievements, and we all need to recognize how well we are doing, and realize how important it is to recognize the accomplishments of others,” said Dean Kermit L. Hall, dean of the College of Humanities.Bond concluded by saying that as the world becomes further divided by race and class, and as hostilities become more widely accepted, greater efforts will bring greater victories.He is currently a faculty member at the University of Virginia, where he teaches courses on the history of the civil rights movement and Southern Black politics.