Eddie S. Glaude Jr. gives his Commencement address to the Class of 2015, May 17, 2015. (Photo by Andrew Daddio)
After combing through many hundreds of commencement soundbites and snippets, editors at The New York Times highlighted the best of the best for their 2015 Cap and Gown blog. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., recipient of an honorary doctor of humane letters from Colgate and professor of religion and African-American studies at Princeton University, appeared at the top of the blog yesterday, above first lady Michelle Obama, television commentators Stephen Colbert and Katie Couric, author Salman Rushdie, and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The excerpt chosen by the New York Times begins: “In so many ways, colleges and universities are training grounds for citizenship. Here you either cultivate the habits of courage or learn the habits of cowardliness. Over the past year, you have courageously forced this university to look unflinchingly at itself. You have set the conditions for a nobler university for that fourth grader today who, in a not so distant future, will find herself moving about this campus. And, hopefully, she will not have to ask herself if she belongs here.”