By Judith Schwartzstein, Director of Public Affairs, Sarah Lawrence College

May 27, 2015:  Sarah Lawrence College conferred more than 500 degrees in the 87th commencement exercises of the historic college in Bronxville. One hundred sixty-nine master's degrees were bestowed on Thursday, May 21, and 334 bachelor of arts degrees, on Friday, May 22.

Ceremonies included addresses by student leaders, college trustees, and distinguished guest speakers. The commencement address to undergraduates was delivered by philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist Kwame Anthony Appiah; remarks to degree candidates in graduate studies were delivered by noted journalist Amy Goodman.

In her address to the class of 2015, Karen R. Lawrence, president of Sarah Lawrence, focused on the unique relationship students and teachers experience at the college and noted the rousing applause as the students' dons and professors processed up the aisle. This, she said, "acknowledges that the artisanal nature of teaching and learning at Sarah Lawrence leads to a student-faculty relationship that is unparalleled. Crafted by teacher and student together, the singular education this college offers depends on faculty who recognize that there is no one path to intellectual engagement and the creation of a meaningful life. This idea of education requires an extraordinary commitment of time and care. One measure of the impact of that commitment is that when Sarah Lawrence alumni get together, even at their 50th reunions, they invoke the names of the teachers with whom they studied."

The intertwining of education and democracy, and a call to activism, were themes that resonated throughout the ceremonies for both undergraduate and graduate students.

"My generation has left you some terrible problems to solve--in global gender inequality, in the threatened ecology of our small planet, in our unequal economy, at home and abroad, in the tormented relations between races and religions," said Appiah to the class of 2015. "But one thing my generation can be proud of is that we can see in you, our legacy, the hope and the ambition and the capacity to build a better future."

He went on to say, "We progress, over the centuries, not so much by shifting our moral ideals as by expanding the circle of those they embrace. And so the age-old question lingers for us: What creatures are we excluding from the compass of concern? As we explore that question, we do well to hold on to Cicero's core idea of the humanities as an essential part of the education for free people, because one achievement of the modern world has been to establish a global consensus that every man and woman ought to be free. In that sense, the central liberal idea--that individuals are all entitled to lives of their own, lives in which the vital, shaping decisions are for them to take and not to be settled for them by a master--is increasingly the common property of humankind."

Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of the alternative radio program Democracy Now!, spoke about what she considers the failure of mainstream media to air voices of people who are seeking peace. "'We will not be silent,'" she quoted, referring to German resistance fighters during World War II. "That philosophy," she said, "that motto should be the Hippocratic oath of the media, should be the Hippocratic oath of us all, particularly the graduating class of Sarah Lawrence College in 2015. Let it be the motto for all of us as we go out into the world."

Bidding farewell to the class of 2015, President Lawrence concluded: "Class of 2015, as you leave the college, we trust you'll discover that a Sarah Lawrence education provides what Kenneth Burke has called 'equipment for living.' Now go put those tools and abilities to work. We expect nothing less of you than to change for the better your communities, your workplaces, your relationships, your nations, and your world."

Pictured here:  New graduates of Sarah Lawrence College.

Photo courtesy Judith Schwartzstein, Director of Public Affairs, Sarah Lawrence College