Author and Journalist Anna Quindlen Tells Graduates of Her Alma Mater to Resist the "Culture of Conformity"
Barnard President Judith Shapiro Urges Graduates to Run for Political Office (Promising to Campaign For Barnard Candidates)
 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Anna Quindlen challenged the graduating class at her alma mater, Barnard College, on Tuesday to resist the country's "culture of conformity" and courageously embrace their own direction in life instead of following the "muddied messages of a timid world."
"You must refuse to be cowed by the opinions of others," Quindlen told the 580 members of the graduating class at the country's most sought-after women's college. "The world has changed in remarkable ways for women in your lifetime. But we still live with the pinched expectations of a culture of conformity. The greatest difference is that you have so much more you will be expected to conform to. If you decide at some point in your life that your vocation is to raise your own children full time, you will surely be criticized by those who think you're wasting your intellect. And if you decide to combine full-time work outside your home with a family within it, you will be criticized for not juggling as well as a circus performer. We live in a country that trashes poor women who will not leave their children to go out to work, and trashes well-to-do women who will."
Anna Quindlen
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"Only a principled refusal to be terrorized by these stingy standards will save you from a Frankenstein life made up of others' outside expectations grafted together into a poor semblance of existence. You can't afford to do that. It is what has poisoned our culture, our community and our national character. No one does the right thing from fear," Quindlen said.
Quindlen said fear has poisoned the country. "Our political atmosphere today is so dispiriting because so many of our leaders are leaders in name only," she said. "They are terrorized by polls and focus groups, by the need to be all things to all people, which means that they are nothing at all." To read the full text of Quindlen's commencement speech, please click here. Throughout a career that has made her one of the most widely admired writers in the country, Quindlen has been active as an alumna of Barnard for the past two decades. A 1974 graduate of Barnard, she has been a trustee since 1983 and is now chair of the Barnard Board of Trustees. Winner of the Pulitzer in 1992 for commentary, she writes "The Last Word" column for Newsweek and is the author of four best-selling novels. In her latest book, Being Perfect , published last month, she shares her thoughts on avoiding "the perfection trap."
Dean Dorothy Denburg |
In urging the graduates to fearlessly pursue an "authentic life" and "the clean, clear voice of direction" within themselves, she noted that fearlessness was at the core of Barnard's founders more than a century ago. The founders had defied the prevailing 19 th century view of women's potential to offer promising young women the very highest quality liberal arts education. In recent years, Quindlen said, "it took similar courage for the trustees of this College to conclude, while institutions like us were being absorbed by others or changing their essential natures, that we must and would stand firm, that the level playing field was still a utopian ideal and that a college for women still had, not just a place, but a preeminent place, in modern America."
President Judith R. Shapiro, a cultural anthropologist, urged the graduates to engage those whose views differ from their own. "We must be prepared to change our minds as we hear more persuasive arguments well-supported by evidence, and also be prepared to hold to those views we continue to find true and compelling, no mater how unpopular they may be."
President Shapiro
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She said academic institutions are rightfully proud to represent diverse backgrounds and opinions.
"We also know that diversity is, in and of itself, no guarantee of the benefits that such diversity is supposed to bring to the life of an academic community. That can only come from thoughtful engagement with those whose views differ from our own."
Noting also that the United States trails other industrialized countries (along with developing nations as well) in the participation of women in politics, she urged the graduates to run for political office, promising to campaign door to door herself for those who choose to do so. "It has been over two decades, 1984, since a woman was on the national ticket as vice president and there has not been another woman on the ticket since," she said. "So, go ahead, run for office. I will go door to door for your campaign."
Amartya Sen and Carla Hayden |
"In urging you to be involved in politics, I can be completely non-partisan because, clearly, both of our nation's major political parties need to get their act together big time," said Shapiro. "Both would benefit from a massive infusion of Barnard brains, talents and character!" Click here to read the full text of Shapiro's speech.
Shapiro presented the Barnard Medal, the College's highest award, to economist Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize winner, and to Carla Hayden, past president of the American Library Association.
Sen, the first citizen of India to receive the Nobel Prize, was honored for his commitment to "the alleviation of deprivations and the reduction of inequalities of all kinds," particularly as they impact women, through his transformative research and extraordinary humanity. "Through your work, monumental in both scope and impact, you have committed a lifetime to improving the lives of others," the award citation said. Click here to read the full citation.
Hayden, who has been at the forefront of the debate over the USA Patriot Act, received the medal as a leading voice in the fight to safeguard privacy and guarantee the free flow and open exchange of ideas. "You have consistently expressed, with clarity and passion, the vital importance of the protection of reading records and equity of access," the citation said. Click here to read the full citation.
For more information, please contact Suzanne Trimel in the Barnard Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-2037, strimel@barnard.edu
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