With a series of sunny, yet smaller-than-usual, diploma ceremonies held on the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University, as well as a university-wide commencement videocast, streamed on Saturday, May 22, graduates of the university were honored for their bravery and determination amid the pandemic, and Fordham flipped the script on an unprecedented year, offering the Class of 2021 a chance to celebrate their resilience, and look forward with hope.

 

During the videocast, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, officially conferred degrees upon nearly 5,500 graduates from ten different college schools, while acknowledging that it was not the commencement anyone had expected.

 

The adapted circumstances signified another aspect of college life curtailed by the pandemic “at a time when the whole world has been haunted by fear and overshadowed by loss,” McShane said. Still, according to the president, commencement was a day of shared victory, shared triumph, and shared accomplishment. “While some might have given in to despair, the Class of 2021 persevered,” he said. “You gave yourselves to a more than usually intense search for answers, and for meaning.”

 

(L to R) Civil rights icon, Dolores Huerta, former U.S. Congressman Eliot Engel, Bronx Borough President Ruben Díaz Jr and author, journalist and humanitarian, TJ English, are were among those honored during commencement at Lehman Collage on May 27. Photos courtesy of Lehman College.

Meanwhile, in her keynote address, retired Navy Admiral Michelle Howard, the first woman to become a four-star admiral, harkened back to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s observation that the ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of convenience and comfort, but where they stand in moments of challenge and controversy.

 

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer also offered words of congratulations to the Class of 2021, saying the country needed students to rebuild, and make it even stronger. “This past year has revealed the injustices and prejudices that persist in our society, and we can’t just go back to the way things used to be,” he said. “We must make our society better, and we know we will, because you are our future leaders,” he added.

 

While many of the themes of the 176th college commencement felt familiar, some reflected the fact that the pandemic, though not yet over, appears to be waning.

 

The victory bell that is rung to mark the beginning of commencement, a gathering which normally draws some 10,000 people to the campus, rang out on nine, different occasions during the week leading up to the main ceremony for the nine, smaller diploma ceremonies that took place. Seniors from Fordham College at Rose Hill, Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and the Gabelli School of Business arrived on campus with a maximum of two guests for those in-person smaller gatherings which ran from Monday, May 17 to Thursday, May 20.

 

 

While students walked with their classmates to their seats, it was a walk unlike any other. Instead of the usual loop around Edward’s Parade that culminates with a march down a center aisle, the students, wearing face masks, proceeded instead straight onto Keating Terrace, down the steps of the “Terrace of Presidents,” to arrive at their individual seats which were spaced three feet apart.

 

McShane noted the Class of 2021 were finishing their studies in spite of having lived through a year that featured a pandemic, an economic downturn, a reckoning with racism, a bruising presidential election campaign, and an assault on the U.S. Capitol, and the democratic principles upon which the nation was built. “The toll that these cascading plagues has taken on all of us, and on you, in a special way, has been enormous,” he said. The full ceremony can be watched above.

Meanwhile, at Lehman College, civil rights icon, Dolores Huerta, New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and others addressed students during the college’s commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 27.

 

Labor leader, Huerta and Stewart-Cousins, who made history by becoming the first woman and first Black woman to head a legislative chamber in the state, addressed the Class of 2021 during the virtual ceremony, live streamed on the day on the college’s YouTube channel and website, on BronxNet TV, and on cable channels 67 (Optimum) or 2133 (FiOS).

 

According to her biography, Stewart-Cousins taught in the Yonkers public school district before entering politics and earned her teaching credentials in business education from Lehman College. She is one of the many prominent Lehman alumni who have gone on to hold elected office. Alongside Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, she’s among the most powerful political figures in the state.

Described as a passionate advocate for public education, Stewart-Cousins has long supported Lehman College, and institutions like it. She played a key role in creating the excelsior scholarship, which provides eligible New York students with free tuition at CUNY and SUNY schools, and in 2018, she fought for a $1 billion increase in state education aid.

 

In spring of 2021, as the State Senate considered a raft of bills designed to further expand access to college, Stewart-Cousins noted “the years our students spend in higher education will help shape the trajectory of their lives.” She added, “New York is, and will continue to be, a national leader in offering quality college and advanced education opportunities.”

 

Stewart-Cousins was joined on the virtual stage by fellow Lehman alum, and Bronx Borough President Ruben Díaz Jr., who received the College’s presidential medal. His remarks to graduating students came as he prepares for a significant transition in his own life. Díaz Jr, who has been borough president since 2009, will be leaving office this year when his third term comes to an end, and voters will elect a new borough president on June 22.

 

In the running are District 14 City Council Member Fernando Cabrera, Assembly Member Nathalia Fernández, District 16 City Council Member Vanessa Gibson, retired NYPD Detective Sammy Ravelo, and State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda.

 

Other speakers included Lehman College President Daniel Lemons, who will leave the college next month for a new interim role as CUNY’s interim executive vice chancellor, Provost Peter O. Nwosu, deans of the College’s five schools, and student speaker, Esther Asibuo-Ramos.

 

In total, Lehman awarded nearly 4,000 graduate and undergraduate degrees at the event. The college also conferred honorary degrees on “three trailblazers who embody the College’s mission and values, pending approval by the CUNY Board of Trustees on May 24.”

 

They included Huerta, community organizer, founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, who has devoted her life to improving working conditions for Latino farmworkers and laborers, and is one of the most important civil rights activists of the 20th century, former New York congressman in the 16^th congressional district and Lehman alumnus, Eliot Engel, who represented the North Bronx and southern Westchester County in the United States House of Representatives for 16 terms, and T.J. English, an author, journalist, and humanitarian.

 

The college arranged a social media viewing party of the event and in the days leading up to commencement, hosted several virtual activities, including a virtual dance party for seniors with Lehman alum, DJ Ode. The full ceremony can be viewed above.

 

Before the ceremony, Lemons had said, “I am thrilled that so many respected, notable luminaries will join us for our virtual commencement ceremony, and my last as president of Lehman College.” He added, “I am so proud of our graduates, and all of their achievements, and look forward to celebrating them on May 27.”