PROVIDENCE — The smiling students flowed down South Water Street yesterday toward the riverside parking lot, where they would soon shake the school president’s hand and exit stage right with a college degree before a crowd of more than 5,000.

Students at the Rhode Island School of Design head for South Water Street along the Providence River yesterday. More than 5,000 people attended.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson Glenn Osmundson

Rebecca Case stood near the front of the procession in a sea of black-robed classmates. With a black patch over her right eye, a stuffed parrot safety-pinned to her left shoulder, and a plastic sword tucked into a makeshift leather belt, the 23-year-old Maine native had decided to celebrate her master’s degree as a pirate.

“We have a wacky graduation,” she said with a coy smile.

Welcome to graduation day at the Rhode Island School of Design, a Saturday-morning jamboree that featured costumes, dirty jokes, burning hats and a four-minute speech by a luminary of American literature and intellectual thought.

In all, 426 undergraduates and 168 graduate students participated in the prestigious art school’s 124th commencement. They wore bow ties, Elvis sunglasses, cowboy hats, Hawaiian leis. Some went the traditional route, donning black robes and cap. Many did not.

Among them was Robin Everett-McGuirl, a 24-year-old from Jamestown.

He was the shirtless illustration major wearing only a black kilt and sandals, a thin black mask painted over his eyes and a ’07 tassel dangling from a braid on the side of his head.

“I’m going into battle now, man,” he said, explaining the warrior look.

RISD may be the only area institution that encourages students to stray from conventional attire on commencement day, as explained in the graduation program:

“In adding their own creative touches or forgoing the gowns altogether, many students have gravitated toward symbols that capture the essence of their major, whereas others have transformed their caps and gowns into more idiosyncratic statements about current events, favorite pop cultural symbols or personal philosophies,” read a statement printed on the program’s first page. “No matter what they choose to wear, students clearly enjoy capping their RISD experience with this final expression of individuality.”

The individuality theme was not lost on the day’s guest speakers.

The first was Seth MacFarlane, the 1995 RISD graduate who became the executive producer of the animated TV sitcom Family Guy three years after his graduation.

“My fellow nerds,” he opened his remarks. “RISD is a place that does more than just teach you to sound intelligent by parroting quantities of information you’re compelled to absorb.... As a film-animation major, I was not taught to do it this way because that’s what Disney wants. The philosophy was, ‘We’re going to teach you every method, and by the time we’re done you will have grown enough new brain pathways to take the baton and carry it wherever your own distinctive voice desires.’ ”

The speech quickly turned to humor, as MacFarlane described characters from his irreverent animated series.

“Thank you, RISD, for giving me the gift of a homicidal, Anglican baby, a mildly retarded obesity case, and a cranially deformed sex addict. As a bonus, thank you also for providing an environment that taught me to never try to guess a person’s gender from behind. Some of you guys look like chicks, and the other way around.”

On the extremely humid June morning under hazy sunshine, MacFarlane’s talk was followed by a very brief and politically charged address from the American writer Gore Vidal.

The progressive novelist, playwright and screenwriter opened by sharing one of the definitions of “design” from the the seventh edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is “to mark out in the arts a drawing, more especially when made as a guide as execution for a work,” he said.

“Precise design is not only necessary in the arts, but also in the governance of a nation, certainly one that is constitutionally under siege, as ours at present, lacking exit strategies, even while unilaterally invading weaker nations to grab their fossil fuels,” he said in a reference to the conflict in Iraq.

“Those who will commence their lives today, as designers, or perhaps, one hopes, as well as designators in the arts of governance. For a sense of balance is all-important,” he said. “Become ready to start designating a new society for us.”

The burning hat came later as students received their diplomas. Master’s student Carl Matthew Szosz donned safety glasses and ignited some type of accelerant that was attached to his cap. The flames produced a huge plume of smoke and some confusion in the audience.

He used thick work gloves to put out the flames before accepting his diploma.

One of those in attendance said RISD’s graduation was completely different from Brown University’s commencement, which she had also attended.

“They can come out however they want. I can’t believe it,” said Marcia Terner, of Florida, whose niece was graduating. “Brown is all pomp and circumstance. This is wild. This is a lot more fun.”

speoples@projo.com