U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will speak at Barnard College’s 117th Commencement, according to an e-mail President Debora Spar sent to seniors on Thursday afternoon.
“It is my great pleasure to join Barnard Board Chair Anna Quindlen in announcing that Hillary Rodham Clinton has accepted our invitation to be this year’s Commencement speaker and to receive the Barnard Medal of Distinction,” Spar wrote.
A group of trustees, faculty, administrators, and students comprises the nominating committee that annually selects Barnard’s Commencement speaker. This year, committee members say they struck gold with Clinton, their first choice, who agreed to be the keynote speaker in May.
As Spar noted, Clinton convened a press conference at Barnard on women’s pay equity in fall 2008. Heralded as an emblem of the advancement of women in America, Clinton received 18 million votes in the race to become the Democratic candidate for president of the United States. “She won more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history and changed the political landscape for generations of women yet to come,” Spar wrote.
Clinton, previously the junior senator from New York, will also receive the Barnard Medal of Distinction, an honor received in 2008 by former Barnard President Judith Shapiro, The New Yorker editor David Remnick, tennis player Billie Jean King, and Harlem activist and Head Start program organizer Thelma Davidson Adair.
Clinton is the second consecutive New York politician to speak at Barnard’s commencement—Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke last year.
According to Barnard Director of Media Relations Joanne Kwong, there will also be several medal recipients this year.
She noted that the speaker is usually announced later in the year—in 2008, Barnard released the information in April—but Spar thought that seniors would be especially excited to hear about Clinton as soon as she confirmed the engagement, before other medalists had agreed to come. By a show of shocked and impressed seniors, she was right.
“Barnard, as its mission, is very in line with so much of what Hillary Clinton stands for. Having been the senator from New York, she has a close affinity to us. She graduated from a women’s college herself,” Sarah Besnoff, BC ’09 and president of Barnard’s Student Government Association, said. “Every student I know ... could not have asked for a more exciting way to finish their Barnard experience.”
The nominating committee chooses honorees whose achievements are related to Barnard’s mission as a women’s college in New York City. Many Barnard affiliates say Clinton is a perfect pick. “Hillary Clinton is the best person to be speaking at Barnard’s commencement,” Anne Epstein, BC ’09, said. “I can’t think of anyone else who could be more of an inspiration to the senior class this year.”
As the news arrived, Barnard political science professor Kimberly Johnson was teaching a class in Dynamics of American Politics. She seemed overjoyed upon finding out. “It’s very exciting. We’re a women’s college,” Johnson said. “This year was such a huge year for women in politics. It’s always been a question: Could a woman run for president? Hillary Clinton has put it to bed. It’s done. It’s a new reality,” she added. Johnson and others are interested to see how Clinton will address her audience of Barnard women.
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