Commencement 2005
President's Address
Judith Shapiro
May 17, 2005
Congratulations, Barnard Class of 2005. You did it - and you did it in grand style! We are immensely proud of you, and I know you are enormously proud of yourselves.
I would like to take this moment to recognize another exceptional group of people - your parents, families and friends - who have supported, guided, and encouraged you all along the way. May I ask all of your kinfolk to rise so that we - and you - can thank them for their contributions to this special day.
As we well know, the excellence of a Barnard education reflects the teaching effectiveness, scholarship and dedication of our fine faculty. Will the members of the faculty please rise so that your students can thank you as enthusiastically as they wish?
And, the overall quality of the Barnard experience is a reflection of all of the work of a first-rate staff. From the Dean of Studies Office to Career Development, Res Life, College Activities, Health and Counseling Services, the facilities and grounds crew who tend the campus and prepare it for this very day, and everyone else - all play a central role in making this the College that it is. Let us join with the Class of 2005 in thanking them all.
You have been a wonderful class. I have gotten to know some of you more than others; I wish I had been able to get to know you all. But I do know that all of you are a source of pride to this College.
And, just to be sure that Barnard gets due credit for all of your successes in the future, you must mention Barnard as often as possible on all possible occasions. As it happens, I was at a conference recently in which a graduate from another institution was admiring the loyalty and commitment of Barnard women to their alma mater. She had noticed that they miss no opportunity to mention their College. She said, and I quote: "You know, they say 'Could you please pass the salt? Oh, I went to Barnard.'"
In fact, the Barnard woman has that certain je ne sais quoi - actually, we probably could say "quoi": a distinctive combination of intellectual audaciousness, social and moral commitment, originality, sophistication, and a strong sense of self. Alumnae say that they can spot one another with a great degree of accuracy.
Today you become our newest alumnae. You will encounter fellow alumnae just about everywhere, doing just about everything. You'll find a great support network among them, and you, in turn, will continue the chain by serving as examples, mentors, and sources of support to those who will follow you in future graduating classes.
Looking back for a moment, before you look forward: this has been a complex and challenging year - both in the world at large and closer to home on Morningside Heights. Political conflicts in other areas of the world - especially, the Middle East - have had powerful reverberations in the life of our own campuses.
While we are proud of the diversity of background and opinion among members of our community, 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. It can only come from the willingness to stand up and make our ideas known, and then listen carefully, respectfully, intelligently to what others have to say. Only in this way will we refine and deepen our own thinking and also come to understand what underlies the thinking of others.
This is not always easy. But if we are truly to fulfill the aims of a liberal arts education, if we are truly to benefit from the academic freedom that we so cherish, we must engage in difficult dialogues. 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 matter how unpopular they may be.
In your years here, you have learned that life is not about hanging back and going along for the ride. You have to do the driving. I have seen you do this through a variety of activities and leadership roles: student organizations, civic engagement projects, and a variety of movements aimed at bringing about change either here at the College and the University or in the wider world.
I have been especially pleased to see increasing student involvement in politics. In terms of local campus politics, participation in student government elections rose by over 20 percentage points. How would we like to see that on the national level?
But Barnard women did their part there as well. Participation in this past fall's national elections was spurred on by the Smart Women Vote initiative, which post-election, morphed into Smart Women Lead. Because that is what it really has to be about.
While we like to think of the United States as an advanced nation, we are actually quite backward when it comes to the participation of women in political life. If you look comparatively at the proportion of women in national legislatures, we rank either 57 or 58; to be sure, we are up from number 60, where we were a little while ago, but that is hardly much progress for a nation that likes to think of itself as a beacon for the rest of the world.
When people are asked in a survey whether they are ready to see a woman as president, the majority do say "yes". Many say that they expect to see a woman president in their lifetime. But 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. It is, in fact, a commentary about the scarcity of women at the top that these days the subject of a woman president always moves quickly to the name of one particular woman.
Now, I believe that this particular woman - the graduate of a distinguished sister institution and a Senator from our very own fine state - wouldn't mind a bit of company, even in the form of competitors. But she will not have much company unless there are more women in positions of political authority all along the way, women in the positions that lead to the Senate and the Governor's Mansion.
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. Both would benefit from a massive infusion of Barnard brains, talent, and character. And then there are all those other parties, groups and movements that can play an important role in advancing public policy.
So, go ahead, run for office. I will go door to door for your campaign. And, if you don't run for office yourself, go work for the candidate of your choice.
Finally - and there are times when "finally" is the most beautiful word in the English language - I would like to close with the following quote from political scientist Hannah Arendt , which I think nicely places you in relation to all the others who celebrate your achievement today:
"Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and by the same token to save it from that ruin, which, except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and the young, would be inevitable. An education, too, is where we decide whether we love our children enough not to expel them from our world and leave them to their own devices, nor to strike from their hands their choice of undertaking something new, something unforeseen by us, but to prepare them in advance for the task of renewing a common world."
On behalf of the trustees, faculty, and administration of Barnard College, I congratulate you, the extraordinary Class of 2005. | 
