President's Address
Judith Shapiro
Commencement 2008
May 20, 2008
Congratulations, Barnard Class of 2008. You rock! This is one big pride-fest here today. We are immensely proud of you. You are immensely proud of yourselves. You are 597 awe-inspiring women.
And speaking of people who are experiencing tremendous pride, I would like 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, Public Safety, 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 2008 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 you are all a source of pride to this College.
As a class, you will always hold a special place in my heart. After all, I am graduating from Barnard right along with you. If you are willing to accept me as a fellow member of the Class of 2008, I might even show up for reunions.
And, speaking of reunions, you are now in a position to consider yourselves Barnard alumnae. And you should share this information as often and as enthusiastically as possible, so that the College can receive proper credit for your high achievements and sterling characters. And you, in turn, can be all the likelier to recognize members of the vast and wonderful support network out there composed of other Barnard alums. You are now part of the great Chain of Barnard Being, and you will, in turn, become sources of support for classes yet to come.
Now, when I think about my own years at Barnard — all fourteen of my deeply rewarding years as president - I am almost rendered speechless...almost, but not quite. In preparing for today, I thought it might be interesting to look back at all the prior speeches I've given on this occasion.
I toyed with the idea of reading them all to you, one after the other, but rejected that. So here instead are just a few selected themes.
I've talked about civic engagement and building community; the Nine Ways of Knowing as vital intellectual tools for your future; the tragedy of 9/11 and lessons we can learn in difficult times; the necessarily high cost of the highest-quality higher education and how it involves a major asset transfer from one generation to another; the challenges posed by new information technologies both to community and privacy — many times have I told you to turn off your cellphones, put down your I-Pods and get a life.
I have also focused more than once on the importance of meeting your political responsibilities as citizens of a democracy. I've urged you to vote, run and lead; to draw upon an understanding of history in interpreting current events; to extend yourselves in order to connect with people from very different backgrounds; to combine ambition with a commitment to honesty and fairness; to become ethical and caring leaders.
I've quoted many people in my speeches, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hannah Arendt, Marian Wright Edelman, Zora Neale Hurston, Woody Allen, even Frank Sinatra — "If you can make it here, you'll make it anywhere".
At my very first Barnard graduation in May of 1995, I talked about the 60's, when I was a graduate student here at Columbia University — to be more specific, right over there in Schermerhorn Hall. It was, as you are perhaps now tired of hearing, quite a time - a period of intense political engagement, a turbulent time of many changes.
We are paying special attention to it this year, as we remember the 40 th anniversary of what the French refer to as "les évenements", after which Columbia became a persisting icon of the student upheaval of those years. There was a war and a draft, and this campus, along with college campuses throughout the country, was the scene of protest and revolt. For the country as a whole, 1968 marked the end of the Johnson presidency, the beginning of the end of the war in Vietnam, the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., the signing of the Civil Rights Act, and the first sighting of the far side of the moon by the crew of Apollo 8.
It is important not to wrap those days in a misty fog of political nostalgia. There was a fair amount of nonsense in the air as well. We need only recall that, at that time, many people were focusing on things like "the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligned with Mars." You too will likely find that distance from your college years will lend a greater clarity.
There's an old saying, purported to be of Chinese origin, which you've surely heard: "May you live in interesting times." The Chinese actually consider it to be a curse, which it surely is if one is using "interesting" as a charming euphemism.
But for anyone, Chinese or otherwise, who has had the privilege of an outstanding education, as you have, interesting times are...well...interesting. It was true for us in the '60's, and it is certainly true again today. You, the Barnard Class of 2008, are graduating from college and entering the working world in some seriously interesting times - economically, politically, technologically, environmentally, culturally. So, what better time to make your mark in a substantive way?
It comes as no surprise that you are already responding to the challenges of our times and making your mark. For one, you are environmentally aware at a time when that awareness is sorely needed. Just look at the gift you have chosen, as a Class, to give to the College — sustainable furniture for the future green roof of the Nexus. Thank you for this evidence of your own leadership in the eco-friendly green movement. In 1968, when we talked about green, we were talking about money or Kermit the Frog — "It's not easy being green."
And you are politically aware. One thing that makes me especially hopeful about what members of your generation can accomplish is the increasing participation of young people in electoral politics. Could it possibly be any clearer that we need a major quality upgrade in our nation's leaders? And, for that matter, in the engagement and knowledge base of the general electorate? I know you are all planning to vote in November, and I know that many of your will be working for a candidate of your choice. I hope that, one day, many of you will be candidates yourselves. And you will win.
After all, you are Barnard women. You are now Barnard graduates. You are brilliant. You bring great passion and dedication to the things you most care about. And you are unstoppable. So, take this most interesting time, and run with it.
I will be keeping tabs, I promise. In fact, I will continue to spend a fair amount of time right around here. When you are back in the neighborhood, you'll see me walking Nora, browsing in the bookstores. You'll run into me at Starbucks, enjoying my triple grande non-fat latte. I'll be the relaxed one reading The New Yorker or Anna Quindlen's latest Newsweek column.
So, not to end, but just to close for now, here are a few lines from one of the bards of my student years, Paul Simon, from the title song of his last album with Art Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water:
Sail on silvergirl,
Sail on by.
Your time has come to shine.
All your dreams are on their way.
On behalf of the trustees, faculty, and administration of Barnard College, I congratulate you, the extraordinary Class of 2008.
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