Ceremony Caps Day for Graduates of CSUN : Commencement: An estimated 27,000 people witnessed the parade of students whose headgear included mortarboards, floppy discs and hard hats.

From the computer floppy discs taped to their black hats to the flower leis around their necks, from the confetti in their hands to the beach balls under their black robes, there was no mistaking them for anything else.

They were graduates.

A record crowd at the North Campus stadium--an estimated 27,000 people--attended the Cal State Northridge graduation Friday morning, filling surrounding streets and sidewalks with cars and pedestrians.

But police reported no major traffic problems, unlike at the 1989 graduation, which was moved off campus to the Hollywood Bowl, causing a three-hour traffic jam that left even university President James W. Cleary late for the ceremony.

This year there were 3,800 graduating seniors--20% of them in business administration--and 600 master’s degree recipients, campus spokeswoman Ann Salisbury said.

As always, headgear was diverse. Engineers wore hard hats, fraternity brothers and sorority sisters wore their letters on their mortarboards, a computer science major wore a stack of floppy discs topped by a cat face.

While students’ black garb soaked up the hot spring sun, Cleary--the keynote speaker--extended thanks to the faculty, students’ friends and families and the graduates themselves. He received loud applause when he spoke of the students’ shared experiences, including “financial crisis.”