As the University of Maryland’s graduating class prepares to leap into the next stage of life, Kermit the Frog left the students with a message of connection and love.

More than 900 undergraduate students from Eastern Connecticut State University crossed the stage at the XL Center in Hartford, celebrating the University’s 135th Commencement Exercises. The degrees given were from the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education and Professional Studies.

Some newly minted grads torched their diplomas in protest, loudly booing, chanting and brandishing signs denouncing Israel.

Thousands of college graduates celebrated commencement across the greater Boston area Sunday, in ceremonies simultaneously exultant and tempered by the increasingly fraught politics surrounding American academia.