Good morning!
I am Cristle Collins Judd, the President of Sarah Lawrence, and I am delighted to welcome you to this beautiful campus and this celebratory occasion as we gather for the 96th Commencement of Sarah Lawrence College.
As we begin, I’d like to continue a tradition that I started at my first Sarah Lawrence commencement, taking a moment to express gratitude; to honor and to thank those who helped guide our graduates to this moment. Class of 2024, please stand. Now: please turn to face your parents, family members, and friends—those who have supported and nurtured you—and thank them with a hearty and heartfelt round of applause.
Graduates, please continue to stand.
I now invite you to offer a second round of applause to those who have been committed to your pursuit of learning and to your success, and to whom you will continue to be connected long into the future: the Sarah Lawrence faculty and staff.
Thank you, please sit.
I would like to add my thanks to the parents, families, and friends in attendance today, and to all those watching and sending good wishes from around the world. We are so grateful for your commitment to Sarah Lawrence and for your support of our students.
Today is a long-awaited celebratory occasion, but one that comes with many and varied emotions given our experiences across these last years. Before addressing our graduates I want to first acknowledge the immense grief and suffering happening beyond this campus: the catastrophic loss of Palestinian lives and the unbearable conditions and humanitarian crisis in Gaza; the loss of Israeli lives and the suffering of hostages at the hands of Hamas; the rise in antisemitism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia across our country and the world. And I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge how these global crises are impacting college students and campuses across the country. While our ceremony today will be a joyful celebration of academic achievement and personal growth, it does not and cannot diminish our awareness or concern for these and other global crises, and I want to acknowledge that.
Now to begin: Class of 2024, you have had quite the trajectory at Sarah Lawrence. Seniors, you began your first year here in the fall of 2020, selected from the second-largest applicant pool in SLC history.
With just 400 students allowed to reside on campus that fall, we welcomed you warmly by telling you to stay six feet apart as you waited to have a swab up your nose for the first of what would be many COVID tests. Indeed, this being Sarah Lawrence, I’m pretty sure that you took way more PCR tests than classroom tests and we definitely were not test-optional for COVID tests. Housing was single-occupancy, there were no athletic competitions, events and gatherings were limited. It was, to put it mildly, not the way you expected to start your college career. And yet, here you are, four years later, having mastered that and every other challenge that has come your way since, and, now, having an actual graduation! During your opening weekend, the Resident Advisors who greeted you called themselves Team Lemonade; I think it’s safe to say that “make lemonade out of lemons” attitude has served you well. Through it all–with everyone in every corner of this College supporting you–you lived into the hashtag that was our calling card throughout COVID: #SarahLawrenceTogether.
And in this, yet another year of challenges that none of us could have predicted or imagined, it is my firm belief that our commitment to #SarahLawrenceTogether is what has sustained us.
Our mission statement begins:
Sarah Lawrence seeks to graduate world citizens
And it concludes:
who are prepared to tackle the problems of, and thrive in, a complex and rapidly evolving world.
It’s an understatement to say that we have all gained a renewed appreciation for just how complex and rapidly evolving our world can be.
With that in mind, I want above all to thank our students – these graduates – and to thank all the members of this community as we have lived together through times in which we have experienced differences so profound that the word “disagreement” doesn’t begin to capture them; differences that proceeded from fundamentally disparate perceptions of ideas as foundational as what constitutes justice; differences in which the religious and the political collided; and in which epistemologies were fundamentally discordant. All of this occurring as outside voices of all sorts passed judgment and called for outcomes that were seemingly irreconcilable.
Yet still, our community worked to move forward, to respect hard-fought principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression. You did that work within the tenets this College has articulated as “Principles of Mutual Respect”, while striving to stay in community with those around you in this residential college. Not easily, not always happily, not without missteps, but you have done it and I am deeply grateful to you.
Class of 2024, while your years at this College have been profoundly shaped by external forces that will mark your memories of this time, equally profound are the ways in which you have shaped each other and shaped this College.
You taught us things when you arrived and we adjusted to how to teach you in the pandemic. With alacrity and nimbleness, faculty created new partial credit online summer courses to welcome you to the College, as the world shut down. [Let’s hear it again for the Sarah Lawrence faculty!] With faculty, you were part of the creation of a powerful new curricular and co-curricular initiative, the Sarah Lawrence Interdisciplinary Collaborative on the Environment, and the amazing work it is doing, including deepening our partnership with Bronx Community College and extending the extraordinary work of CURB, our Center for the Urban River. You have deepened our work with our community partners. You’ve been part of new courses that embedded internships in our curriculum. You have helped create a sustainability values statement for the College that will guide us as we move forward. You have helped us focus on the history of the land on which this College sits as we develop a living land acknowledgment. You have called for us to focus on the equitable and ethical use of our resources in every dimension in which the College operates. You have helped us focus on what it means to nurture a campus culture in which every student has access to the extraordinary promise of this Sarah Lawrence education. In other words, you have focused us on humanity, on understanding, and on belonging.
Just weeks ago, you quite literally left your mark on the College when you gathered to sign your names on an interior wall as we celebrated the transformation of the Pub into The HUB, a new Center for Humanity, Understanding, and Belonging. While you will only experience that space, just outside this tent, as alumni, you and your voices have indelibly shaped it for those who will follow you on this campus. It is so fitting that your names are written on its walls and will be in the DNA of the building, so to speak, as it enters its next phase.
One of my greatest privileges as a resident of this campus is seeing firsthand so much of what happens here. From being – literally – the only fan in the stands in those early COVID days to sharing stands full of fans at so many events this year. From virtual theatre and dance performances to the virtuosity of amazing performances that have filled the calendar to overflowing. And readings, film screenings, music-making, science posters, literary magazines, thesis sessions, conference work, fieldwork, internships, clinical rotations, craft talks, and so much more that make up the intellectual and artistic vitality that is the hallmark of this place. Carry those indelible memories with you, too.
Graduates, as you forge your way in this world, never forget what it means to earn your degree from Sarah Lawrence College, to be united with more than 20,000 alumni in the privilege and pleasure, yes, but also the obligation of this education.
When I meet with our alumni, what they tell me is this: that their time at Sarah Lawrence was transformative, that it was life-changing. They tell me they didn’t necessarily realize that immediately after graduation. (So, graduates, full disclosure: you’re probably not going to wake up tomorrow and suddenly feel transformed!) But over time, this is what they recognize as the most valuable aspect of their Sarah Lawrence experience.
So, graduates, live into the promise of your Sarah Lawrence education. Continue to embrace intellectual and creative risks, to cross disciplinary boundaries with curiosity and confidence, but also with humility, with humanity, with concern and compassion for others. Use your Sarah Lawrence education and the way it has prepared you to tackle the problems of, and thrive in, a complex and rapidly evolving world. Do so not only so that you yourself may thrive, but in order to lead the way so that all can thrive in this world. As your education has transformed you, go out and use it to transform the world.
We recently introduced the “Centennial Gryphon”, the new visual representation of our longstanding mascot that you see on the podium before me (and one I am happy to say that I have seen a lot of you wearing at various times). This gryphon embodies you so, so well. Symbolizing intelligence and strength, the gryphon joins the power and majesty of a lion with the wisdom and tenacity of an eagle to create an entirely new creature that exceeds the sum of its parts. The Centennial Gryphon brings its own particular blend of balance, wisdom, and creative energy. Wielding a quill—a nod to how writing has been embedded in Sarah Lawrence curricula from the start – its pose is graceful, intentional, and a little playful, evocative of dance and all the ways SLC students express themselves artistically. The gryphon glances to the past to honor what came before while striding boldly toward the future. Class of 2024, I hope and trust you will do the same.
Congratulations, Sarah Lawrence College graduates!
Remarks as prepared for delivery