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The class of 2020’s Commencement was a departure from College tradition in that the ceremony featured remarks from three of the year’s honorary degree recipients as well as the president and a classmate chosen by the graduates. A fourth honoree, poet and playwright Sonia Sanchez, who was the first African American woman to teach at Amherst (in the 1970s) and the second person to chair the Black studies department, could not make it to the event. Instead, she read a poem she wrote specifically for the graduates in a pre-recorded video that was shown at the ceremony. That piece will be posted on the Commencement website shortly.
What follows are some of the more memorable quotes from the speakers.
Stanley Dunwell ’20, class speaker
- I’m guessing you’re here to reconnect with distant friends on those hot and sweaty moments in Jenkins [Residence Hall]. Or maybe you’re missing that sense of nostalgia and couldn’t resist a reason to relive that feeling. Or maybe you’ve been dying to get that coveted [Conway] cane and I’m the last thing standing in your way.
- I couldn’t believe that I was in a class with some of the best students in the country, in the world. I mean, we have some of the best athletes, performers, intellectuals, supermodels. All right, I’m kidding about that last part. We all know the only supermodel is on this stage.
Andrea Dutton ’95, professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
- The essence of what you need to know about climate change is in just 10 words that summarize five key facts: It’s real. It’s us. It’s bad. Experts agree. There’s hope.
- Do not fall for climate doomism. … Open your eyes to the promise of the progress that we can make. I have hope because there isn’t just one solution to this problem. There are many. We need bankers, artists, architects, teachers and, yes, politicians. All of us have skills that we can use to make a difference if we allow ourselves to find the courage and to be brave enough to dream.
- Dare to unleash your imagination. Because the future is not just a place that we get to go to–it is a place that we get to create. Together.
President Biddy Martin
- (In regard to the spurious claim that first Amherst President Zephaniah Swift Moore kidnapped Williams College professors who served as Amherst’s first faculty members) Let it be known here. … No member of the Amherst faculty has ever heeded, much less obeyed, against their better judgment, a single word from an Amherst president.
- You are a class that knows that things simply are not good enough in our country, and you will make them better
- [During pandemic-induced remote learning] I asked if you would continue sending me emails, telling me what to do. You said you would. I told you I’d be voiceless if you stopped. I said maybe I’ll start a blog. And you left.
Maud Mandel, president of Williams College
- We at Williams are extremely proud of you today. You’ve done amazing work to earn your degree. I hope you feel the joy of a job well done. Sure, we’ll keep giving you a hard time, and you’ll do the same to us. But when the kidding stops, we’re fortunate that Amherst graduates are helping address the big challenges.
- If I sleep well at night (and let’s face it, I don't very often—I’m a college president after all), it’s because I know you’re out there doing good work that reflects the education you received here and the values it instilled. That gives me tremendous hope for the future. You give me hope for the future.
Gary Shteyngart, bestselling author of Our Country Friends and other novels
- This is not only a big occasion for the graduates, but also for me. I’ve never worn a cap and gown before. I overslept my high school graduation and then I graduated from Oberlin where everyone just went naked for graduation. This cap is great. I hope I can keep it.
- I think a liberal arts education is the most wonderful, yet also the strangest thing. In most parts of the world you go to university and you become an engineer, and that’s that. Happened to all my relatives back in the old country. New Jersey. But as liberal arts grads you are presented with an endless smorgasbord of choices.
- We live in a society where your phone will always go off. Something will always be demanded of you, because, as flexible thinkers, you will be in great demand. And your phones are just a start. As soon as Elon Musk inserts that neural network into your brain, good luck trying to evade your boss on the weekend.