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 97th 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 2025, please stand. Now: please turn to face your parents, family, 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 for 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 be seated.
Parents, families, and friends, let me add my thanks to those of our graduates. We are so grateful for your commitment to Sarah Lawrence and for your support of our students.
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Class of 2025, you have had quite the trajectory at SLC. While there is no question that 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 this College.
Seniors, you began your first year here in the fall of 2021, and while COVID didn’t impact your arrival on campus, Tropical Storm Henri did! When the storm cleared, you were here, together (a little soggy), for the first fully in-person semester since the onset of the pandemic. While vestiges of COVID remained, we quickly settled into a rhythm and got back to much-loved campus traditions.
One of my greatest privileges as a resident of this campus is seeing firsthand so much of what happens here. And one of my greatest pleasures as president is getting to know you, Sarah Lawrence students. To share passing “hellos” around campus, to be humored in my requests for selfies, to take in the sights and sounds of this very lawn, from stage combat, to drumming, to ultimate frisbee, to the equestrian team, to so much more. Most of all, to experience the richness of your work, your performances, your art, your clubs, your writing, your science posters, your sports, your passions … the richness of you. Individually. And together.
You have cultivated something priceless as you have nurtured your love of learning, honed your ability to ask questions, grown in empathy, striven to find answers, and developed your voice and critical abilities. You’ve worked hard, really hard, but you’ve also laughed with, cried with, and delighted in those who surrounded you. At this moment, when so much confronts us, hold tight to not only what you learned, but how you’ve learned and — especially — those around you with whom you have learned.
Over your four years you welcomed some very unique visitors to campus — turkeys, POTUS, and bears, oh my!
Your senior year is the one during which the men’s basketball team roared to the semifinals to cap a program-best season, bolstered by a newly established cheer team — #gogryphons!
Your commitment to climate justice and your participation in the Sarah Lawrence Interdisciplinary Collaborative on the Environment helped create a Sustainability Values Statement for the College.
And you were among the first students to open the HUB, our newest student-centered space on campus, whose name stands for Humanity, Understanding, Belonging. You helped shape the vision for the HUB, and as you have lived in and into that space this past year — indeed, as you have sought to live those words, humanity, understanding, belonging — 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.
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When I arrived at Sarah Lawrence eight years ago, I established a tradition of year-long themes, the first and overarching of which was “Democracy and Education”. Democracy and education: two words in connection that remain of critical concern as we confront urgent and pressing questions and threats. What are the essential elements of a “democracy”? Who gets to be a “citizen” and why? How do we learn to speak to one another across deep ideological divides? How can we best balance the ideal of free speech in the face of hate speech? And what role should education — and higher education, in particular — play? These were foundational questions for Sarah Lawrence College nearly a century ago, and they have animated the lives of our students and graduates ever since.
The ongoing and expanding geopolitical crises coupled with new and growing uncertainty here at home have been challenging to us as an institution and as a community, sometimes deeply so. 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 proceed from fundamentally disparate perceptions of ideas as foundational as what constitutes justice; differences in which the religious and the political collided. And as we have grappled with these challenges, outside voices of all sorts have passed judgment and called for outcomes that were seemingly irreconcilable. Yet, I am proud of our community, proud that we have worked hard to move forward, to respect hard-fought principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression, and to do so within the tenets this College has articulated as “Principles of Mutual Respect”. Not easily, not always happily, not without missteps, but we have continued – and will continue – the work to do so and I am grateful.
Because in a world increasingly marked by polarization, the ability to engage across difference, to think deeply and critically, and to uphold the dignity and worth of all people is not optional, it is essential. And so as you forge your way in this world I urge you to remember and carry with you the values of this institution – values I have reiterated repeatedly in recent months lest anyone forget who we are and what Sarah Lawrence stands for. Let me share them with you one more time in capsule form as you prepare to leave this place:
First and foremost, we are committed to providing an environment in which all of our students — regardless of race, gender identity, ethnicity, nationality or national origin, disability, socioeconomic status, or religion — have unimpeded access to the educational experience at the center of our mission.
We believe that a diverse and global community is essential, as varied perspectives bring broadened learning and deeper understanding.
We value and uphold free expression, always in a context of mutual respect.
Finally, we affirm that free inquiry and academic freedom are cornerstone principles of our educational mission, and must remain free from the threat of censorship, retribution, or deportation.
Graduates, the very essence of a liberal arts education — its dedication to critical thinking, creativity, and the pursuit of knowledge across disciplines — is precisely what is most needed at this moment. You are what is most needed at this moment.
So 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 life-changing, that it was transformative. They tell me they didn’t necessarily realize that immediately after graduation. (So, graduates, 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. Go now and use the way this college has prepared you to tackle the problems of, and thrive in, this complicated world. Do so not only so that you yourself may thrive, but in order to lead the way so that all may thrive. As your education has transformed you, go out and use it to transform the world.
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Congratulations, Sarah Lawrence College graduates!
Remarks as prepared for delivery