THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK COMMENCEMENT FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2019 THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK Commencement Friday, May 31, 2019, 9:30 a.m. South Campus Great Lawn Presiding Vince Boudreau President, The City College of New York Academic Procession Interim Provost Tony Liss Gustavo Cepeda President, Undergraduate Student Government Emmanuel Adu Poku Executive Chair, Graduate Student Council Associate Dean Ardie Walser The Grove School of Engineering PhD Graduates Dean Mary Erina Driscoll The School of Education Elsie Nicole Figueroa and Erin N. White Dean Gilda Barabino The Grove School of Engineering Ahalya Sanjiv and Yashoma Boodhan Dean Juan Carlos Mercado The Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education Denise Carter-Mataboge and Julie Orelien Interim Dean Gordon A. Gebert The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture Diaa Hassan and Maria Katrina Duran Director Hillary Brown Sustainability in the Urban Environment Nicolas Maxfield and Jose Firpo Interim Dean V. Parameswaran Nair The Division of Science Valeria Grajales and John Supino Interim Dean Erica Friedman The Sophie Davis Program in Biomedical Education in the CUNY School of Medicine We are grateful for the Yardelis Maria Diaz and Charlene Kotei Dean Erec Koch generous support of Sy The Division of Humanities and the Arts and Laurie Sternberg Rafael A. Samanez and Aurora Soriano Dean Andrew Rich for their sponsorship of Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership this year’s Commencement. Oneika N. Pryce, David Dam and Bryan Guichardo Academic Procession Faculty Presentation of Candidates Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education .......Juan Carlos Mercado (continued) Reunion Classes 1949, 1959, 1968, 1969 and 1979. (continued) The Sophie Davis Program in Biomedical Education President’s Platform Party in the CUNY School of Medicine.........Erica Friedman Deans and Vice Presidents of the College Sustainability in the Urban Environment Student Government Leaders Hillary Brown Valedictorian Salutatorian SEEK Program Honored Guests Sherri Rings Interim Provost Tony Liss Chief Marshal Janet Steele Conferring of President Boudreau President Vince Boudreau Doctoral Degrees The Color Guard of the CUNY Army ROTC Program presents the National Colors Conferring of President Boudreau Masters Degrees The National Anthem Jamile Staevie Ayres, Master of Music 2019 Antonio Ciacca, Master of Music 2019, Accompanist Conferring of President Boudreau Baccalaureate Degrees Greetings Ken Sunshine The Board of Trustees The City University of New York The Ephebic Oath Martin Cohen ’50 Chair, 21st Century Foundation Haris Khan ’19 The Board of Trustees We men and women The City University of New York 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 Welcome and President Boudreau take this oath of devotion to the City of New York: President’s Message we will never bring disgrace to our city Valedictory Address Elizabeth Yim by any act of dishonesty or cowardice nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks; Conferring of Tony Liss we will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city Honorary Degrees Interim Provost both alone and with many; Edward S. Plotkin ’53CE, ’56MCE, ’58MBA we will revere and obey the city’s laws, The Honorable John Robert Lewis and do our best to incite a like respect and reverence in those about us who are prone to annul them Keynote Speaker The Honorable John Robert Lewis and set them at naught; United States House of Representatives we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public’s sense of civic duty; Presentation of Candidates Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture Gordon A. Gebert and thus, in all these ways, we will strive to transmit this city and not only not less but greater, better, and more beautiful Grove School of Engineering than it was transmitted to us. Gilda Barabino School of Education The Alma Mater Lavender, My Lavender Mary Erina Driscoll led by Chief Masrshal Janet Steele College of Liberal Arts and Science Accompanied by Antonio Ciacca ’19 Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership ...................Andrew Rich Recessional The audience is requested to remain in place until the Division of Humanities and the Arts.......Erec Koch Platform Party and Faculty have left the area. Division of Science .......................V. Parameswaran Nair 2 3 President’s Message Honorary Degree Vince Boudreau The Honorable John Robert Lewis President Keynote Speaker Congratulations, Graduates! Often called “one of the most Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks courageous persons the Civil and serious injuries, Lewis remained a devoted Today, you join the thousands upon thousands of men and women who have graduated Rights Movement ever advocate of nonviolence and voter registration. from The City College of New York since its founding, and moved on to make the world a produced,” John Robert Lewis Under his leadership as Director of the Voter better place. Before you leave campus, make sure you take a moment to page through the has dedicated his life to Education Project, nearly four million minorities honor roll of those who came before you, so that you fully understand what it means to protecting human rights, were added to the voter rolls. take your place—equally accomplished, equally exalted, equally vested with skill and securing civil liberties, and capacity—among them. building what he calls “The In 1977, Lewis was appointed by President Beloved Community” in America. Jimmy Carter to direct more than 250,000 As you move from our campus, I would like to urge upon you some final thoughts. First and most volunteers of the federal agency ACTION, and in important: trust your education. Trust in the store of knowledge and wisdom that your time at CCNY has Born outside of Troy, Alabama, in 1940, Lewis, 1981, he was elected to the Atlanta City Council. invested in you. You came to us exactly as young people have come through the decades—neither more nor the son of sharecroppers, was inspired as a boy by less prepared or worthy of this place. You leave us now entirely fit to be the modern heirs of our legacy and the the activism surrounding the Montgomery Bus In November 1986, Lewis was elected to appropriate stewards of our vision. You do not yet know what you will accomplish, or to what challenges your Boycott and the words of the Rev. Martin Luther Congress, where he continues to serve as the U.S. life will lead you—but neither had those who came before you. We are proud of what you’ve been, and eagerly King, Jr. Representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional anticipate the discovery of what you will become. We are also grateful for the days that we shared together on District. He is Senior Chief Deputy Whip for the this campus. As a student at Fisk University, Lewis organized Democratic Party in leadership in the House, a sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters member of the House Ways & Means Committee, a Second, understand that your college experience has not been the same as that of many people you will in Nashville. In 1961, he participated in the member of its Subcommittee on Income Security meet outside our campus confines. We have tried to create a community on this campus where nobody is an Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation at and Family Support, and Ranking Member of its outlier—where respect of difference and the serious consideration of alternative perspectives is fundamental interstate bus terminals across the South. He was Subcommittee on Oversight. to how we think and work. To the extent that we’ve succeeded—and accomplishing these goals is never beaten severely by angry mobs and arrested by something about which to be complacent—we have modeled a better world than the one you may enter. That police for challenging the injustice of Jim Crow Lewis holds a B.A. in Religion and Philosophy experience equips you with special insights, with better and more just ways of thinking and interacting with segregation. from Fisk University, and is a graduate of the one another. You have hopefully adopted a deeper appreciation of what can happen when everyone’s American Baptist Theological Seminary. He has contributions and experiences are acknowledged: when we account for the insights of each person, and strive During the height of the Movement, Lewis was been awarded over 50 honorary degrees, and is the to understand and salve pain that may not be our own, that may be alien to our experience. named Chairman of the Student Nonviolent recipient of numerous awards, including the highest Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which he helped civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, granted by Take those insights into the world with you. Understand that we have but planted a seed on this campus, form. By 1963, he was dubbed one of the Big Six President Barack Obama, the NAACP Spingarn but because you were present at that sowing, we expect you to tend the garden of mutual respect wherever you leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, and was an Medal, and the John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage go, and for the length of your days. To live up to these expectations will take courage and fortitude. It will architect of and a keynote speaker at the historic Award” for Lifetime Achievement. mean honoring the history of this great institution by bringing your best self into the world each day, and March on Washington in August of that year. falling back, when you need it, on the lessons you learned on our campus. It will mean drawing on the Lewis co-authored the #1 New York Times tremendous reserves of tenacity that so many of you have displayed in merely getting into CCNY, or coming to Lewis coordinated SNCC efforts to organize bestselling graphic memoir MARCH, winner of the campus each day, or making it to this, your graduation day.