Schools
Class of ’11 Graduates from New College
The commencement ceremony included an inspired speech by noted Holocaust educator Helen Fagin.
One hundred and sixty-seven students breathed a collective sigh of relief Friday evening, as their undergraduate careers came to a bittersweet close. Faculty, families and friends packed into a large bayside tent as the sun set to watch the graduates receive their diplomas.
The class of ‘11 did their part in upholding the New College tradition of unconventional get-ups, with costumes ranging from giraffes and cavemen to a Monty-Python-inspired King Arthur.
Setting the tone for the evening was New College President Gordon “Mike” Michalson. Speaking to the uniqueness of New College’s educational principles, Michalson remarked that the aim of the graduates’ education had not been “to make you more efficient in satisfying your acquisitive tendencies,” so much as, “to leave you a more disciplined and self-reliant critical thinker, able to navigate the overwhelming contingencies that lie ahead of you with self-confidence, competence and humane impact.”
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Keynote speaker Helen N. Fagin drew from her own experiences as a Holocaust survivor-turned-educator, beginning by humbly remarking that she found it “difficult to absorb the very fact that I am actually standing here, addressing graduates of an Honors College.” She added, somberly, “I was not supposed to be here…I was not supposed to live.”
Most emphatically, she spoke of the significance of a moral compass in higher education. Quoting Albert Einstein, she remarked, “Knowledge and skill alone cannot lead humanity to a happy, dignified life. The destiny of civilized humanity depends more than ever on the moral forces it is capable of generating.”
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She went on to advise the graduating class that as America’s future decision-makers, they are tasked with trying to “eradicate human behavior based on blind prejudice and bigotry, and replace it with human decency.”
Retiring Associate Professor of Russian Language & Literature, David R. Schatz followed with a speech reflecting on his long career at New College, and the profound impact being an educator left on his life. Provost & Professor of Psychology Charlene Callahan and Professor of Economics Catherine Elliott are also retiring.
