While New York University students will hear words of wisdom from Taylor Swift at their upcoming graduation, other city schools have opted for politicians, a sports legend and even a few astronauts as their commencement speakers and honorees.
Crazed Swift fans have been offering cash to NYU students to try to score tickets to the May 18 ceremony at Yankee Stadium.
The graduation for Pace University students on May 16 promises to be a more sedate affair with Mayor Eric Adams and Rep. Grace Meng slated to speak.
Columbia University is awarding honorary degrees to Hillary Clinton and Patti Smith among others at its May 18 ceremony. But neither the former secretary of state nor the musician are expected to address grads, a role only performed by the university president.
The university’s “class day” and convocation events will include speeches. Astronaut Sunita Williams will speak to the engineering school on May 16 and Dr. Anthony Fauci is to address grads of the school’s Teachers College on May 23. It’s the college’s first in-person convocation event in three years, but Fauci won’t be there, instead delivering a pre-recorded speech.
Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical advisor, is also expected to get an honorary degree from City College in Manhattan on June 3 along with documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson.
Fauci is slated to speak at the outdoor graduation where masks will be optional but unvaccinated guests must have a negative COVID-19 test.
His selection as a degree recipient, along with those at other public City University of New York schools, must still be approved by the CUNY board at its May 16 meeting.
CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice also went with an astronaut, Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space, as a proposed honorary degree recipient along with the artist Faith Ringgold, who graduated from City College.
Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College, also part of CUNY, is slated to honor basketball legend Earl “the Pearl” Monroe. The school noted the former Knick’s work mentoring young people with the nearby Crown Heights Youth Collective in proposing him for the honor.
The actor Danny Burstein, who starred in “Moulin Rouge!” on Broadway, is to get an honorary nod from Queens College, his alma mater.
Brooklyn College is going farther afield and with planned honors for Liberian peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Roberta Gbowee.
The Class of 2022 at Fordham University will hear from the Rev. Calvin Butts, pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, at its May 21 ceremony. Butts is a visiting professor at the school.
