{"id":12453,"date":"2024-05-20T18:02:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T18:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/05\/20\/press-for-justice-now-rather-than-justice-delayed\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T12:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T16:24:12","slug":"clark-selects-student-speakers-for-commencement-2024","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2024\/05\/20\/clark-selects-student-speakers-for-commencement-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark selects student speakers for Commencement 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Clark awards 1,376 degrees during 120th Commencement<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Clark University today awarded 1,376 degrees to the Class of 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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President David B. Fithian \u201987<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

President David B. Fithian \u201987 opened Clark\u2019s 120th Commencement held at the DCU Center in downtown Worcester by asking everyone in the arena to give a full-throated, no-nonsense roar, so loud that anyone on campus two miles down the road could hear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo much precedes this day and so much will, of course, follow it,\u201d Fithian said. \u201cBut for now, for this day, smile upon yourself, applaud your achievements, reflect upon your growth, celebrate your friends and classmates, and, perhaps most importantly, bask in the love of those here with you and for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clark conferred 503 bachelor\u2019s degrees, 847 master\u2019s degrees, 26 doctoral degrees, and four honorary degrees. The graduates include 653 international students representing 39 countries. The Commencement ceremony was the first that Clark has held in the DCU Center to accommodate more guests including those with accessibility challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gary Labovich \u201981, chair of the Board of Trustees, urged students to never take for granted an opportunity to present their best selves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile this may feel like an ending, it really is just the beginning. It\u2019s the beginning of a great adventure \u2014 the rest of your life \u2014 one that only you can define and shape,\u201d Labovich said. \u201cI know it sounds kind of scary, but isn\u2019t this what you have been waiting for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Geography Professor Rinku Roy Chowdhury<\/a> read a commencement address from Dr. Robert D. Bullard, \u201cthe father of environmental justice\u201d and the Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University. Bullard was unable to attend in person because of an illness. Bullard called himself a \u201cproud Boomer\u201d excited to work with Generations X, Y, and Z, to create necessary, transformative change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery successful progressive social movement in the United States has had strong, fearless, and dedicated young people and students leading the way, pushing hard at the front and pressing for justice now, rather than justice delayed,\u201d Bullard wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Geography Professor Rinku Roy Chowdhury read a commencement address from Dr. Robert D. Bullard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bullard grew up a child of the Jim Crow South, attending all-Black elementary, middle, and high schools and undergraduate college. When Bullard was kept out of his hometown public library in Elba, Alabama, his parents spent money buying extra books, encyclopedias, and magazines to supplement his education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRacial injustice kept me out of the public library, but the fight for civil rights and education justice allowed my 18 books to grace the shelves of that same library where I was banned decades earlier,\u201d Bullard wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bullard cited a number of environmental justice milestones over the years, from a landmark 1979  lawsuit challenging the siting of solid waste facilities in Houston\u2019s predominantly Black neighborhoods to the federal passage in 2023 of $60 billion \u201cfor getting resources into communities that historically have been left out and left behind.\u201d He compared the quest for justice to an ongoing marathon relay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou run your 26.2 miles, and then the next generation begins their leg of the race,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI am driven by, and I am happy to be able to pass the baton to, the up-and-coming generations of environmental justice advocates who will continue with the same resilience that so many involved in the journey have already shown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Bullard, honorary degrees were conferred to Sean B. Carroll, Distinguished University Professor and Balo-Simon Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland, who has been called \u201cthe greatest science storyteller of our time\u201d; Akiko Iwasaki, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine, who researches the mechanisms of immune defense against viruses at mucosal surfaces; and Michel Nischan, a four-time James Beard Award-winning chef and champion of the farm-to-table concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n