They’re Off and Running : Graduation: UCI hands out more than 3,600 degrees at three ceremonies Saturday.

A plane droned above, towing the message “Congrats Todd--the future is in your hands.” Students in cap and gown tossed a nude, inflatable dummy about. And thousands of parents, relatives and friends watched under a hazy sky Saturday as more than 3,600 degrees were awarded during UC Irvine’s annual commencement exercises.

“I’m extremely excited,” said Kay Matsubayashi of Culver City, mother of social sciences student Dean Matsubayashi, 23, who graduated with honors. “It’s his determination that did it,” she said of her son, as her husband, George, beamed. “He’s setting an example for his younger sister and brother.”

Dean Matsubayashi will attend Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government after spending a year interning on Capitol Hill in Washington, his mother said.

Rigoberto Rodriguez, president of the Associated Students, dedicated his commencement speech to the memory of the late farm workers’ leader Cesar Chavez.

“Our generation is not only one that cares but acts,” he declared. “When the Rodney King trial verdict came in during our final exams last year, we took to the streets of Irvine--behind the darkness of the ‘Orange Curtain,’ and we shouted ‘No justice, no peace,’ ” Rodriguez said, as he presented the class gift to the university, a donation for medical research. “Our generation has put its money where its mouth is.”

More than 10,000 people, including students and guests, attended three separate ceremonies Saturday: at 9 a.m. for students in biological, engineering and physical sciences; at 1 p.m. for students of the School of Social Sciences; and at 4:30 p.m. for graduates in fine arts, humanities, the School of Social Ecology and information and computer science.

The Graduate School of Management held a separate ceremony at noon Saturday, and other ceremonies were held Friday as well.

Among Saturday’s guests were Judy and Jim Donley of Danville, near San Francisco, who watched their son Timothy graduate with a bachelor’s degree in economics. “He did this in four years and one quarter,” Judy Donley said. “That’s pretty good these days. We’ve really been looking forward to this, and for him to be on his own.”

Timothy Donley’s father, Jim, said: “We footed about 75% of the bill for this. . . . It was well worth it. . . . We’re going to go back to the Marriott Suites and break open some champagne, and share it with some of his friends. And then we’re taking him out to dinner.”

Timothy Donley starts work Monday at a mortgage company in Tustin, his parents said.

Graduating social science student Frank Rios set the tone for this year’s class when he said: “I’m glad I’m here today. But I was even more happy yesterday. . . . I found a job. You have no idea how hard it was.”