NORTHAMPTON — The Smith College students at Sunday’s commencement ceremony were urged to resist injustice and had their place in the Smith community reaffirmed.
“This community will be yours for life,” said college President Kathleen McCartney.
In total, 598 undergraduates and 51 graduate students, from 42 states and 22 countries, were awarded degrees as part of the class of 2022. Honorary degrees were also awarded to domestic violence survivors advocate Marianne Winters, disability rights advocate Judith Heumann, violinist Midori, journalist Isabel Wilkerson, and the incoming interim president of Mount Holyoke College, Beverly Daniel Tatum, who was also the commencement speaker.
For the most part, the weather cooperated for the college’s 144th commencement, with only a light sprinkle of rain during Tatum’s commencement address.
In her speech, Tatum noted the difficulties graduates will be confronting in the world.
“We have come through two long years of a global pandemic, which is not over yet; we see the escalation of global conflict as wars rage; we recognize the backlash against racial progress and the rise of white nationalist movements at home and abroad; we feel the impact of climate change; and we are confronted today by the growing threats to democracy, and the erosion of women’s rights,” Tatum said. “In short, the world, as we have known it, seems to be unraveling.”
Tatum, a scholar of race and racism, said the United States is experiencing a period of counterrevolution against progress. However, she said this, in and of itself, is a response to advances that have been made in such areas as women’s rights, voting access and LGBTQ civil rights.
“As painful as the pushback feels, it is in itself a reaction to social progress — and reminds us that change is possible. It has happened before and, even in the face of setbacks, change can happen again,” Tatum said. “To quote the social justice icon Professor Angela Davis, ‘the key is persistence.’”
Tatum also said that in challenging times like these she turns to historical examples as a source of encouragement, what she called “resistance narratives” pointing to the women who fought fascism in Italy and those who fought the Nazis in France, as well as the anti-lynching campaign of Ida B. Wells in the United States.
Additionally, Tatum told those in attendance to reject fear, which she said stands for False Evidence Appearing Real, and embrace hope, which she said stands for Having Optimism Produces Effort.
“Change IS possible. The key is persistence. Maintain a discipline of hope,” Tatum said. “Your collective leadership, harnessed with the energy that comes from hope, will bend the arc of justice once again.”
Tatum wasn’t the only speaker whose remarks touched on social justice.
Matilda Rose Cantwell, the college’s chaplain, acknowledged the indigenous lands that the college stands on in her remarks, and urged those in attendance to “resist the myth of redemptive violence”
She also said that the class will not be able to be stopped as they “prepare to mend the planet, create beautiful art and make change.”
“Class of 2022, there is no one like you,” Cantwell said.
In her remarks to her fellow classmates, senior class president Giulia Guiso Gallisay noted the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on her college experience and that of her classmates.
An international student originally from Milan, Italy, she was one of many unable to return to her home country in March 2020 because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.
“Luckily, my chosen family opened their home to me and let me make so much zucchini soup and banana bread,” Gallisay said.
She also noted how she and her classmates have changed over their time at Smith.
“Thank you for growing and changing alongside me,” she said.
Apart from the speakers, the day was full of spectacle and tradition. The Holyoke Caledonian Pipe Band and members of the University of Massachusetts Brass Quintet played. When bachelor of science awardees were asked to stand, the engineers switched their caps for hardhats. And when undergraduate students were given their degrees, they were not their own.
Instead, students were handed the degree of another student, and students then stood in a big circle passing degrees. When a student received the degree that was in fact their own, they would step out of the circle.
Grace Ettinger, an art history major, described graduating as “really exciting.”
“We’ve had a difficult four years,” she said.
As for the future, Ettinger said that she would like to work in art museums.
Roya Mostafavi also expressed excitement about graduation, and said her next step is applying to medical school.
“Smith empowers its students,” she said.
Jailene Gonzalez said that she’s “excited to start my new chapter in life,” while revealing that that chapter will be at Smith, as she’s going to be attending the school to get her master’s degree studying microbiology.
“I really like working in the lab I’m in,” she said.
Julianne Borger took a semester off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and received her degree on Sunday.
“I finally got to have my moment,” she said.
Rachel Clendenning got her degree from Smith in mathematics but, noting the liberal arts nature of the school, said that she studies “everything.’
Clendenning said she plans to work at a summer camp before I “launch myself into the world.”
She also said that she’s going to miss the community at Smith, describing it as one where its members care about each other and the world.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.