Commencement Friday, June 1, 2018
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THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK COMMENCEMENT FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2018 THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK Commencement Friday, June 1, 2018, 9:30 a.m. South Campus Great Lawn Presiding Vince Boudreau President, The City College of New York Academic Procession Interim Provost Tony Liss Taimoor Arif President, Undergraduate Student Government Cyrille Njikeng Executive Chair, Graduate Student Council Associate Dean Ardie Walser The Grove School of Engineering Ph.D Graduates Interim Dean Kevin Foster Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership Faria Tasnim and Tyler Walls Dean Erec Koch The Division of Humanities and the Arts Sophie Ziner and Lucius Seo Dean Maurizio Trevisan The Sophie Davis Program in Biomedical Education in the CUNY School of Medicine Samantha Lau and Gabriella Schmuter Acting Dean V. Parameswaran Nair The Division of Science Lisa Lopez and Lucy Lopez Acting Dean Gordon Gebert The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture Jun Nam and Gabriel Morales Director Hillary Brown Sustainability in the Urban Environment Michael Duffy, Evelyn Levine and Robin Perl Dean Mary Erina Driscoll The School of Education Massiel A. De León de la Serna and Samson Baker Dean Juan Carlos Mercado The Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education Gabrielle Gallo and Jose Miranda Dean Gilda Barabino The Grove School of Engineering Vivakeanand “Vishal” Boodhan and Joseph Rettberg Academic Procession Faculty (continued) Reunion Classes 1978, 1968, 1958 and 1948 President’s Platform Party Deans and Vice Presidents of the College Student Government Leaders Valedictorian Salutatorian Honored Guests Interim Provost Tony Liss Chief Marshal Janet Steele President Vince Boudreau The Color Guard of the CUNY Army ROTC Program presents the National Colors The National Anthem Megumi Toyama BFA in Jazz Vocal Studies Greetings Fernando Ferrer The Board of Trustees The City University of New York Chancellor James B. Milliken The City University of New York Welcome and President Boudreau President’s Message Valedictory Address Yasmine El Gheur Conferring of Tony Liss Honorary Degrees Interim Provost Harold Scheraga (in absentia) Seymour L. Moskowitz Anita Hill Key Note Speaker Anita Hill Presentation of Candidates Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture Gordon Gebert Grove School of Engineering Gilda Barabino School of Education Mary Erina Driscoll College of Liberal Arts and Science Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership ...................Kevin Foster Division of Humanities and the Arts.......Erec Koch Division of Science .......................V. Parameswaran Nair 2 Presentation of Candidates Division of Interdisciplinary Studies (continued) at the Center for Worker Education .......Juan Carlos Mercado The Sophie Davis Program in Biomedical Education in the CUNY School of Medicine.........Maurizio Trevisan Sustainability in the Urban Environment Hillary Brown SEEK Program Marie Nazon Conferring of President Boudreau Doctoral Degrees Conferring of President Boudreau Masters Degrees Conferring of President Boudreau Baccalaureate Degrees The Ephebic Oath Al D’Elia President Alumni Association We men and women graduating from The City College of New York, do this day, after the manner of the Athenian youths of old about to enter public life take this oath of devotion to the City of New York: we will never bring disgrace to our city by any act of dishonesty or cowardice nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks; we will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city both alone and with many; we will revere and obey the city’s laws, and do our best to incite a like respect and reverence in those about us who are prone to annul them and set them at naught; we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public’s sense of civic duty; and thus, in all these ways, we will strive to transmit this city and not only not less but greater, better, and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us. The Alma Mater Lavender, My Lavender led by Chief Masrshal Janet Steele Accompanied by Allison Deane Recessional The audience is requested to remain in place until the Platform Party and Faculty have left the area. 3 President’s Message Vince Boudreau President Congratulations, Graduates! Today, you enter the ranks of men and women who, for 170 years, have graduated from the City College of New York, and moved into the world to make it a better place. If you’ve had the chance, over your years here, to page through the honor role of those who came before you, you know what an elite and accomplished family you now join. Those who came before you built cities, pursued justice at the very highest levels, led nations and industries to astounding new accomplishment. They taught, invented, built, discovered, organized and nurtured a society that is immensely better because they took hard earned knowledge and wisdom—the fruits of their time at CCNY—with them into the world. As you move from our campus, I would like to urge upon you some final thoughts. First and most important: There has never been a more capable group of graduates than you. You came to us as young people who have come to us through the decades—neither more nor less prepared or worthy of this place, and you leave it as utterly befitting modern heirs of our legacy, and appropriate stewards of our vision. You do not yet know what you will accomplish, or to what challenges your life will lead you—but neither had any of those who came before you. We are proud of what you’ve been, and eagerly anticipate the discovery of what you will become. And we are grateful that, for a time, we shared our days together. Second, understand that your college experience has been different than that of many who you will meet. The fact of our diversity is often presented as an important consideration for admission to the college. I have always thought that it was a far more important consideration for your entrance into the world. We have tried to create a community on this campus where nobody is an outlier—where respect of difference and the serious consideration of alternative perspectives is fundamental to how we think and work. To the extent that we’ve succeeded—and accomplishing these goals is never something about which to be complacent—we have modeled a better world than the one you may enter. That means that you are freighted with special insights, that you have hopefully adopted more effective ways of seeing one another and appreciating what can happen when everyone’s contributions and experiences are acknowledged: when we account for the insights of each person, but also strive to understand and salve pain that may not be our own, that may be alien to our experience. For you to live up to these expectations will take courage and fortitude. It will mean honoring the history of this great institution by bringing your best self into the world each day, and falling back, when you need it, on the lessons you have learned on our campus. It will mean drawing on the tremendous reserves of tenacity that so many of you have displayed in merely getting into CCNY, or coming to campus each day, or making it to this, your graduation day. I give you this charge knowing how strong you can be, how smart you all are. I ask you to walk this path because I know you can, and for the sake of our society, I hope that you will. I ask you to do what generations of young people before you have done, every year, on this place and at this time. I ask you to move into the world as true sons and daughters of City College, and live lives that we will celebrate as reflecting our very highest values, our greatest expectations, and our fondest dreams. With my warmest congratulations, Vince Boudreau 4 President, CCNY Honorary Degree Anita Hill Keynote Speaker University Professor of Law, Public Policy and Women’s Studies Heller Graduate School of Policy and Management, Brandeis University Of Counsel at Cohen, Milstein, Sellers and Toll, Washington D.C. With her unflinchingly publications on subjects ranging from bankruptcy to courageous testimony before the equal educational opportunity. 1991 Senate Judiciary Committee’s televised hearings on the confirmation In addition, Professor Hill engages prominent of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court of the professionals all over the country to spearhead “The United States, Anita Hill stepped from a highly Gender/Race Imperative,” a project to revive accomplished private life into the very public, awareness of the broad capacity of Title IX, the white-hot center of an intense national debate about crucial law mandating equal education how men and women relate to each other in the opportunities for women. In collaboration with workplace. She may not have won the battle then, artist Mark Bradford for his 2017 Venice Biennale, but 27 years later she and those who fought with her Anita Hill explored contemporary art as a gateway and those whom she inspired have turned the tide of to our understanding of the legal and policy the war. challenges present in today’s civil and gender rights movements. The great granddaughter and granddaughter of slaves and the youngest of 13 children growing up Professor Hill is the recipient of numerous on a farm in Oklahoma, Anita Hill received her J.D. awards, grants and honorary degrees. She chaired from Yale Law School in 1980. She began her career the Human Rights Law Committee of the in private practice in Washington, D.C. There she International Bar Association, and is a member of also worked at the U. S. Education Department and the Board of Directors of the National Women’s Law Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.