After four years of cracking books to make the grade at Thiel College, about the last thing the 113 graduates probably wanted to hear was an admonition to read more.

Like it or not, that's what commencement speaker and fellow class of 2002 member George Will told them in what he described as "the last lecture you will endure" in college.

"Continue to read," he told the commencement crowd at Passavant Center on Thiel's Greenville campus. To do anything else, he said, was to contribute to the deterioration of the common culture that once bound society together.

Will, a syndicated columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner, best-selling author and panelist on "This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts," said he is dismayed by the "thinness" of common culture. The abundance of shared symbols -- Will's examples were literary works and Biblical references -- that once underpinned communication is shrinking, he said.

"The furniture of the public mind is not as plentiful and sturdy as it once was," he said.

The remedy is to increase the prestige of reading, Will said, "especially old books."

It 's not as easy as it sounds, he said."Reading is demanding,it 's difficult,it 's strenuous "

but "books remain the primary carriers of ideas." Will also eceived an honorary doctorate from the liberal arts college Saturday.It was presented by former state Sen. Roy W.Wilt. "I do not deserve this degree, but I have an arthritic wrist and I do not deserve that either," Will said. Will is perhaps the school's only legacy when it comes to honorary degrees,college President Lance A.Master said. Will 's parents,Frederick and Louise Hendrickson Will,met at Thiel and were members of the class of 1929.

Frederick Will was given an honorary doctorate in 1965. Will made eference to the connection in his commencement speech,noting that in a way Thiel "gave life to me."