University awards 1,206 undergraduate degrees at 264th Commencement

This article is an online exclusive. The Daily Princetonian will resume regular publication on Sept. 15. Visit the website throughout the summer for updates.

At the University’s 264th Commencement on Tuesday, 1,202 undergraduates from the Class of 2011, four from other classes and 815 graduate students received degrees in a morning ceremony held on the front lawn of Nassau Hall. Degree candidates were joined by roughly 7,500 family members and friends.

In her address to the graduates, President Shirley Tilghman reminded students that they were “the lucky ones” as beneficiaries of a world-class education and urged the new graduates to use their University backgrounds to address the educational achievement gap in the United States.

“I find it deeply paradoxical that the United States has, without question, the finest colleges and universities in the world, but a K-12 education system that is leaving vast numbers of students behind,” Tilghman said, adding that high-quality K-12 education is essential to the country’s future global economic competitiveness.

“All of you will be citizens of cities, suburbs, towns and hamlets that will depend on their public schools for their future prosperity, and all of you will be able to find ways to devote some of your time and talents to raising both their sights and their levels of achievement,” Tilghman said. “Your pledge today to demand that those schools serve all their students well, not just the lucky ones like you, could make all the difference in the world.”

Meanwhile, valedictorian John Pardon ’11, a mathematics major from Chapel Hill, N.C., discussed the importance of personal initiative and accessibility of good teachers in achieving success.

“The brain is something to be exercised and trained, in the same way athletes train their muscles, musicians train their ears and poets train their emotions,” he said. “The fundamental basis for this training is intellectual curiosity and a willingness to work hard.”

To illustrate his point, Pardon recalled his own experience with the University’s Princeton in Beijing program, which he called “the most academically challenging program I have ever participated in.”

“As an incoming freshman at Princeton, I chose Chinese as a new language to learn because, of all my options, it seemed to have the most difficult pronunciation and most complex writing system,” he said. “I was both amazed and delighted at how fast it is possible to learn a language in such an intense environment and with such amazing teachers.”

Veronica Shi ’11, a classics major from West Covina, Calif., delivered the traditional salutatorian address in Latin.

“Marching once and only once, then, friends, and all together, we sing, ‘Hurrah, Victory!’ exulting, and twice again say, ‘Hurrah, Victory!’ and will lift to heaven’s lofty arch the noble name of Princeton,” she said in an English translation provided, in the University’s tradition, only to the graduating students. “Blessed friends, I shall say ‘Hail,’ not ‘Farewell,’ and this too: ‘With undying loyalty, love each other always.’ ”

The University also awarded six honorary doctoral degrees at the ceremony, including one to Hank Aaron, a retired African-American Major League Baseball player who has been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and received the 2002 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“Today, America is a much better place with much more opportunity for all, in part because he gave all of us an imperishable example of grace under pressure,” University Orator and Trustee Peter Wendell ’72 said of Aaron.

Other honorary doctoral degree recipients included Harlem Children’s Zone chief executive officer Geoffrey Canada, clinical researcher and chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco Susan Desmond-Hellmann, the University's Dayton Stockton Professor of History Emeritus Charles Gillispie, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater artistic director Judith Jamison and University Board of Trustees member Robert Rawson, Jr., ’66.

Four University faculty members received President’s Awards for Distinguished Teaching, including Wilson School professor Anne Case, history professor Hendrik Hartog, philosophy professor Alexander Nehamas GS ’71 and psychology professor Daniel Oppenheimer. The University also presented four New Jersey teachers with awards for outstanding secondary school teaching.

Tilghman also recognized the contributions of Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel, who is stepping down this year after a 24-year tenure. "During her deanship, she has presented nearly 27,000 candidates for undergraduate degrees," Tilghman said. Malkiel will take a yearlong leave before returning to her teaching and scholarship work in the history department.