By Donald Gilpin 

Princeton University’s 273rd graduation ceremony on Sunday was celebratory and mostly upbeat, but, as University President Christopher L. Eisgruber said in a taped virtual welcome to the 1,250 undergraduates receiving bachelor’s degrees and 492 graduate students receiving Ph.D. or final master’s degrees, it was “not the ceremony anyone would have wished for.”

Standing fully robed in academic regalia at the podium with the facade of Nassau Hall and its two sculpted tigers behind him, Eisgruber looked out on an empty lawn, though thousands were present virtually for the event on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Dean of the College Jill Dolan, who joined Eisgruber to formally present the candidates for degrees, called on the online audience to join her in imagining a more normal scenario. “I hope you too can see this imagined community who are cheering you today,” she told the graduates.

In his speech to the graduates, Eisgruber acknowledged the enormous challenges for this generation, which has been “touched by tragedy” and which graduates in “much harder times” than their parents’ generation faced. “You have seen how fragile our world is,” he said, noting the losses that all had recently suffered.

He went on, however, to emphasize that the most important question is “what will you do with this hardship? You have the opportunity to chart a new course. I hope you seize that opportunity.” And he closed by referring to a planned, in-person graduation for the class of 2020 in May 2021. “I look forward to congratulating you in person next spring,” he said.

In a statement, also issued on Sunday, Eisgruber commented on the killing of George Floyd and the importance of confronting racism. “We have witnessed yet again how this nation’s long legacy of racism continues to damage and destroy the lives of black people,” he wrote. “The COVID-19 pandemic itself has killed black and brown Americans at higher rates than other groups, magnifying disparities in health care and economic well-being.”

He continued, reemphasizing his challenge to the graduates and the community. “We all have a responsibility to stand up against racism, wherever and whenever we encounter it,” he said. “Commitments to diversity, inclusivity, and human rights are fundamental to the mission of Princeton University. I ask all of us to join the graduates in the Class of 2020 in their quest to form a better society, one that confronts racism honestly and strives relentlessly for equality and justice.”

In his valedictory remarks, Nicholas Johnson, a senior class operations research and financial engineering concentrator from Montreal and the first black valedictorian in Princeton University history, also challenged the Class of 2020, as he emphasized the need for building. “Think critically about what needs to be built in the world, build it, and never stop learning,” he said. “Building is a vehicle of progress and a bridge to a better future. Let us build a better future.”

Honorary Degrees

Princeton University awarded five honorary degrees at the commencement ceremony, conferred remotely to Nobel chemistry laureate Frances Arnold; philanthropist and global health advocate Ray Chambers; pioneering TV anchor Robin Roberts; groundbreaking chemical engineer and emeritus Princeton professor William R. Schowalter; and financial and international development leader Linda Tsao Yang.

Arnold, who received the 2018 Nobel Prize in chemistry “for the directed evolution of enzymes,” was described as using “the most powerful biological design process in existence — evolution — to engineer chemical solutions to human problems.” Her citation continued, “With the same creativity of thought that she poured into Russian literature, economic theory, and solar panel design during her undergraduate years at Princeton, she now creates compounds that can replace toxic pesticides, provide alternatives to fossil fuels, improve MRI scans, and manufacture medicines.”

Chambers, who has served as ambassador for global strategy at the World Health Organization since 2018, was described as “a staunch friend to his native Newark, N.J., which he has helped to revitalize; to our country’s youth, on whose behalf he has championed the transformative power of mentoring; and to the international community, where, working with the United Nations, he has advanced the cause of global health, not least by spearheading an anti-malaria campaign that has saved millions of lives.”

Roberts, co-anchor of ABC’s Good Morning America since 2005, “has activated her public platform, built on over 30 years in broadcasting, to lift others up, support them in illness, and provide hope on the road to a cure,” according to her honorary degree citation in the commencement program. “A star basketball player and sports reporter, a pioneering anchor, and a dedicated partner in the Be the Match international bone marrow registry, she has been a model of courage and leadership — for women of color, and for everyone.”

Schowalter, whose career at Princeton University stretched across seven decades, “made foundational contributions to the field of chemical engineering and influenced legions of students and scholars around the world,” with “profound contributions to engineering, science, and the international research enterprise,” his citation noted.

Yang, former U.S. ambassador and executive director to the Board of the Asian Development Bank in Manila, was cited for “embracing ‘no excuses’ as her motto.” Her citation continued, “She shattered glass ceiling after glass ceiling, establishing a remarkable career in financial oversight and international development. With her passion for equal opportunity, this economist, corporate leader and diplomat has widened the path for all who would follow in her footsteps.”

The full text of Eisgruber’s commencement address follows:

“Touched by Tragedy”

A venerable Princeton tradition allows the University president to offer a few words to the graduating students at each year’s Commencement exercises. You’ve all heard more than enough online speeches this spring, so I’ll keep my remarks brief. I would be remiss, however, if I did not say something to mark the special achievements, and the exceptional potential, of this graduating class.

During my own senior year, which was a very long time ago, I chose a quotation from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., to accompany my picture in The Nassau Herald. The quote was, “Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire.”

This was a terribly naïve selection on my part. I wanted to say to my classmates that our time together at Princeton had kindled dreams, ideas, and friendships that could inspire us throughout our lives. But when Holmes claimed that he and his generation had been “touched with fire,” he meant that their character had been forged through the searing challenges and tragic deaths of wartime military service. Through that perilous endeavor — and here I will quote the next line from his speech — “it was given to us to learn…that life is a profound and passionate thing.”

My generation experienced nothing like that.  For the most part, we had it rather easy.

You graduate in much harder times. The awful contagion that now spreads among us tends to afflict the old more harshly than the young, so you may or may not feel your own life at risk.  Some of you, however, have lost relatives or friends to this virus, or struggled with it yourselves. Many of you have seen jobs disappear or felt the economic devastation inflicted by this pandemic. Each and every one of you has lost something precious and irreplaceable.

In far too many ways, you have seen how fragile our world is. So much vanished so fast:  scholarly projects, artistic performances, athletic competitions, even the simple pleasures of sharing meals or hugging friends. This ordeal affects us all, but it comes at a particularly formative moment in your lives.

So what will you do with this hardship? The losses are real and painful. What they took from you was beyond your control. What you take from them, however — that is at least partly up to you.

It is thus worth asking:  how will you remember these difficult times when you look back on them many years from now? Might you say, do you want to say, after Oliver Wendell Holmes, that “In our youths, our lives were touched by tragedy, and so it was given to us to learn that life is a profound and passionate thing?”

You are already the Great Class of 2020 in the sense that we traditionally call Princeton classes “great”: during your time as Princeton students, you animated this University with your creativity, curiosity, intelligence, aspiration, persistence, and energy. I have no doubt that you will continue to impress us with your achievements in the years to come.

I believe, however, that your class has the chance to be the start of something truly extraordinary, to appreciate anew the value of ordinary human experience and to cooperate afresh for the common good. You enter a world that needs not only your talent, but also your insight, your courage, and your compassion. With those qualities and with the education you complete today, you have the opportunity to chart a new course. I hope you seize that opportunity.

For today, though, I hope simply that you celebrate as exuberantly as circumstances allow. You have persisted in tough times, achieving something remarkable. I send heartfelt best wishes to you now, and I look forward to congratulating you in person next spring.