University Celebrates First In-Person Commencement In Three Years

Upper West Side NY

19 May, 2022

4:11 PM

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By Irie Sentner, Zachary Schermele, and Stella Pagkas, Columbia Daily Spectator • May 19, 2022, 1:51 AM The University celebrated its first in-person Commencement ceremony in three years on Wednesday, as thousands of graduates and their families gathered on campus and thousands of others joined on a livestream. University President Lee Bollinger addressed the graduates with an acknowledgement of the unique challenges of the past few years, including the pandemic that plunged students across the country into an extended period of remote and hybrid learning, while Columbia and other universities entered into states of financial uncertainty—from which Columbia has succeeded in not only recovering, but recouping record returns on its endowment. "We say with more conviction and more respect than ever before, congratulations to the class of 2022," Bollinger said. The pandemic continued to impact the quality of higher education throughout the last academic year, during which COVID-19 outbreaks resulted in quick pivots to remote learning and frequently changing masking policies. Some administrators, in speeches conferring degrees to their students, commended students for overcoming the many obstacles the pandemic posed to completing their degrees. Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar, also used the ceremony, as he traditionally does, as an opportunity to offer his assessment on the state of current higher education and freedom of expression. He said one of the greatest threats facing both universities and the country writ large is the growing spread of deliberate disinformation, propaganda, and the "increasingly pervasive misuse" of free speech. Bollinger said disinformation "is now empowering a particularly pungent form of populism" and that the denial of the existence of issues such as climate change and racial discrimination are "polluting our collective mind." "It is common for me on these occasions to speak about the glorious principles of freedom of expression and its offspring of academic freedom," he said. "But on this day, what concerns me is a different problem—not of censorship but instead of an overabundance and excess and abuse of freely expressed but deeply misguided speech, that threatens a moral, ethical, just, wise, and sane world." He added that over the past several years, some of Columbia's own faculty have been "targets of this abuse." Bollinger also presented Hillary Rodham Clinton with an honorary doctorate for her "intellect," "grit," and "lifetime commitment to serving the public good." After chants of "speech" rang across Morningside campus when Clinton received her honorary doctorate, she took to the stage briefly, saying there is "work to be done to ensure justice, equality, freedom, and yes, to preserve and protect democracy." "Let me add my congratulations to all of you for this extraordinary accomplishment under challenging, unprecedented circumstances," she said. "Let me ask you, really beseech you, to take this extraordinary, world-class education and not only put it to work in the service of your own dreams, as important as those are, but also as a citizen—a citizen who believes that everyone is entitled to the same kind of education." Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, CC '96, was given the University Medal for Excellence. Bollinger referenced Kantor's investigative reporting on Harvey Weinstein, which he said shed light on "decades of horrific abuse and provoked a seismic shift in attitudes around women in the workplace and beyond." Other honorary degree recipients included renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, whom Bollinger called a musician of "peerless musical expertise," and James Stewart Polshek, dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, among others. Bollinger presented a number of awards to faculty members for teaching, mentoring, and service and bestowed the Columbia Alumni Association's highest award to several alumni. Bollinger, who will step down as University president next year, ended his remarks with a nod to the importance of students to the University community, as well as a reference to the "fourth purpose," speaking to his belief in integrating higher education with the outside world. He said it is a key part of the University's mission, along with teaching, research, and service. "I feel strongly that we need to make the boundaries between us and the rest of the world more permeable and more connected in the betterment of human society in the world," he said. "This mission … might help people more broadly feel more respectful of what we have to offer." News Editor Irie Sentner can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @iriesentner. Deputy News Editor Stella Pagkas can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @stellapagkas. Deputy News Editor Zach Schermele can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ZachSchermele. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.