The six days of Reunions and graduation were ones mostly of revelry and celebration: The Classes of 1975 and 2000 came back to visit a campus much changed since they were here, and the Class of 2025 walked out of FitzRandolph gate for the final time as students.
But amid the traditional fun, there were some reminders of the abnormal semester that Princeton and universities across the country experienced.
Reunions and graduation speakers referenced the tense political climate around higher education, adding urgent undertones — and sometimes overtones — to otherwise standard ceremonial speech fare.
On the Saturday of Reunions, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 addressed alumni in Richardson Auditorium for his annual Reunions Address. This year, the event was formatted as a Q&A, moderated by Justin Purnell ’00, the president of the Class of 2000. Eisgruber touched on some of his signature campus issues, including student body expansion and financial aid, but otherwise spent much of the talk on threats from the federal government and Princeton’s response.
This Reunions address was peppered with several standing ovations. Board of Trustees Chair Louise Sams ’79, who received one as she introduced Eisgruber, joked that she was “afraid to say more because we’ll get more applause.”
Eisgruber greets the crowd to a standing ovation.
Calvin Kenjiro Grover / The Daily Princetonian
“I had tears in my eyes,” Jane Brody, an honorary member of the Class of 1987, told the ‘Prince.’ “We all, I think, understood a kind of unity with the other Ivy Leagues about international students and diversity.”
Eisgruber said that following a move by the Trump administration to halt Harvard’s enrollment of non-American students, he was “very worried” about Princeton’s ability to recruit internationally.
In response to a question from the audience, Eisgruber noted that he has spent time coordinating with other universities to “advocate in Washington,” but emphasized that each institution also had to stand up on its own.
“There are also times when I’ll read something about, you know, ‘we should all have a mutual defense compact,’ or something like that. I have to say, I look at that and say, ‘I don’t know what that means,’” he said. “There are times where, okay, we could all announce support for one another, but I don’t think it would have the kinds of impacts that people say. So there is a lot of work going on in this regard, but it requires a lot of individual effort and a lot of energy going into it.”
Despite the enthusiastic response in the room — Eisgruber joked that “this is the biggest crowd [he’s] ever gotten” — much of the auditorium’s balcony remained empty. About 20 minutes into the talk, two sets of pro-Palestine protesters dropped banners off the side of the balcony. They were shortly escorted away, and Eisgruber did not verbally acknowledge their presence.
After the talk, Yang Shao ’20 praised Eisgruber for his attention to international students. “I was an international student at Princeton, so I care deeply about the University's ability to attract talent from around the world,” Shao told The Daily Princetonian in an interview. “I was very happy to hear the President address this issue and just reaffirm the deep principles and values that the University has in being inclusive and affordable for students coming from around the world.”
“I came here because I thought the opportunities here would be great, and I really want future international students to continue being able to enjoy Princeton,” Shao added.
Eisgruber also urged alumni to register for the Stand Up campaign, a website and newsletter to “make the case for America’s colleges and universities.”
According to Princeton Alumni Weekly, Stand Up had 7,236 subscribers in early May. University Spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote to the ‘Prince’ that there were 8,682 subscribers at the end of Reunions weekend.
Eisgruber’s Commencement speech echoed his Reunions address, as he urged graduating students to “stand boldly for the freedoms and principles that define this and other great universities.” This statement was met with resounding applause.
He also spoke at some length on institutional neutrality, a general principle that universities should not take positions on political issues not relevant to its core functions. Eisgruber said that while he agrees with much of the Kalven Report, the document that first outlined the principle of institutional neutrality, he dislikes the connotation of the term “neutral.”
“Universities might be less vulnerable to criticism and attack if they were bland, innocuous, and neutral — but then they would not be true universities,” he said. “We aim to encourage and elevate what [Alexis de] Tocqueville depicted as the sometimes irritating tendency of Americans — and democratic citizens more generally — to believe that human intelligence can explain, critique, and improve the world.”
At Baccalaureate on Sunday, Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell ’75 urged graduating seniors to “look around you” and “take none of this for granted,” referring to the “great universities” of the United States and the education Princeton provides.
He also urged them to “find time in your careers for public service” and said that “when you look back, ... you will want to know that you have done whatever it takes to preserve and strengthen our democracy.”
Jay Shetty, a celebrity podcaster, delivered a more standard Class Day speech the next day. He encouraged students to work hard and improve themselves, regardless of how others perceive them, and spoke of the importance of finding personal definitions for success instead of relying on praise from others.
“Stop announcing every move and start building something that speaks for itself,” he said.
He also urged students to take risks, referencing his decision to move to India and become a monk after college.
Shetty has faced scrutiny for allegedly misrepresenting various parts of his life story. An investigation in The Guardian found that Shetty likely spent much of his time in the United Kingdom during the period he claims to have lived in India. The investigation also found that he used other creators’ social media content without proper attribution. A petition criticizing Shetty’s selection as Class Day speaker was published in the ‘Prince’ early May and garnered 193 signatures.
During Class Day, an address by Eisgruber was interrupted by a protester holding a Palestinian flag. The protester, who the University said was not a Princeton student, was escorted away from the venue and charged with disorderly conduct, defiant trespassing, and resisting arrest.
Shetty received honorary membership to the Class of 2025, a distinction generally given to Class Day speakers. The class also granted honorary membership to four staff members: Melanie Ibarra, the program coordinator for student organizations; Julie Gerek-Sefa, the undergraduate administrator in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Chelsie Berg-Geist, an administrator in Princeton’s Freshman Scholars Institute (FSI) program; and Catalina “Esther” Maldonado-Lopez, a dining hall worker.
During Commencement, the University awarded 1,293 undergraduate degrees to the Class of 2025 and 663 graduate degrees.
Maya Mukherjee is a News contributor and the head Podcast editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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