Stanford University’s 125th commencement on Sunday morning was typically joyous, celebratory and momentous, while also historical and at-times political, even contentious.
It was the final graduation ceremony for President John Hennessy and Provost John Etchemendy in their current roles. Both are stepping down after more than a decade in their respective positions. Sunday also marked the university’s 125th commencement, a milestone the university has been celebrating in various ways throughout the year.
Both Hennessy and the graduation keynote speaker, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, talked about the importance of appreciating history, urging graduates to balance past and present in order to better understand and impact the future.
Unavoidable at the ceremony were traces of the present moment — particularly the national uproar over the sentencing of a former Stanford student, Brock Turner, for the sexual assault of an unconscious, intoxicated young woman on campus last year. The six-month jail sentence and three years’ probation has been widely decried as too lenient, with people across the country mobilizing to recall the judge in the case, Aaron Persky.
Hennessy began the commencement with a moment of silence for survivors of sexual violence and victims of a mass shooting in Orlando, Florida early Sunday morning. Later, he called the two Stanford graduate students who intervened and apprehended Turner that Jan. 18, 2015, night “heroes” and thanked them for “reminding us how to stand up for justice against violence.”
Some graduating seniors taped to their caps white pieces of paper with “1/3” printed in black text, a reference to the number of women, gender non-conforming and transgender students who will have been sexually assaulted by the time they leave Stanford, according to a Stanford climate survey, said organizer and graduate Brianne Huntsman. Others walked through the traditional “Wacky Walk,” among students in goofy costumes, carrying signs with messages like, “Rape is rape,” “Brock Turner is not an exception” and “You are a warrior,” the last a quote from an open letter Vice President Joe Biden wrote to the victim in the Turner case after a 12-page statement she wrote to the judge went viral.
As families and friends settled into their stadium seats before the ceremony, a plane carrying a banner that read “Protect survivors. Not rapists. #PerskyMustGo” flew in circles above their heads. The plane was commissioned by Ultra Violet, a Washington, D.C.-based women’s rights organization.
At press check-in tables, sitting next to the commencement program were stacks of a recent press release Stanford put out detailing its “commitment to combating sexual violence.”
Burns only addressed the topic briefly, pointedly telling graduates: “If someone tells you they’ve been sexually assaulted, take it effing seriously and listen to them.”
“Maybe someday we will make the survivor’s eloquent statement as important as Dr. (Martin Luther) King’s letter from a Birmingham jail,” he added.
To Huntsman, who has been involved with survivor advocacy efforts on campus for several years, graduation was an opportunity not to demand a longer sentence for Turner, but to educate others about the continuing issues on the ground at Stanford. While Turner was caught in the act, arrested, convicted and sentenced, other student-perpetrators remain on campus, Huntsman said.
Weighing the pros and cons of protesting at commencement, she and others decided: “This is the time do it because the world is watching Stanford,” she said.
Stanford spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said the university respected students’ right to protest.
“We support the fact that they’re raising visibility to the issue,” she told the Weekly.
Others were displeased with how the topic spilled over into what is supposed to be a day of celebration.
Senior Allie Koscov chose for her Wacky Walk costume a large posterboard she wore that read “Scapegoat,” with the first letter the iconic, Cardinal red Stanford “S.” A member of Stanford’s judicial panel pool, she defended the university’s handling of the case, which was to ban Turner from campus, conduct a police investigation and forward it to the district attorney’s office.
Any blame placed on Stanford is misplaced, Koscov said. To her, it was “disgraceful” and “disgusting” that others “co-opted” graduation to protest the sentencing.
“This is supposed to be a celebration of our achievements,” she told reporters.
“It’s made (graduation) really politically charged when it’s not supposed to be,” she added. “Parents are here and instead of talking about our accomplishments — not saying that they have to — the topic of dinner conversation last night was Brock Turner. The topic this morning was ‘Stanford rape case.’ This isn’t what I want to be defined as and I don’t think it’s what my fellow classmates want to be defined as.”
As a protester chanted loudly outside one of the stadium gates, a student walking by wondered to his friend, “Is this really the time and place?”
Other students asked to be interviewed following the ceremony declined to speak if they were going to be asked “inflammatory” questions.
Paul Harrison, a graduate from London, England, carried a sign reading “Rape is rape.” He said the day was still a celebration, despite any protest.
“I think we’re all really proud to have graduated from this incredible university. I just think that the actions of the few affect the many. Us here, doing this, says a lot about an active, mobilized community of students,” he said.
The protesters were scattered among the usual jubilant, quirky and creative costumes of the Wacky Walk: students dressed as animals, cups of coffee, superheroes, astronauts; smartphone emojis; Mario Kart characters; a group of girls dressed as The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy holding signs that read, “There’s no place like Stanford.”
Burns gave an impassioned speech about history, memory and politics. (Read the full text of it here.)
“I am in the business of memorializing, of history,” he told the graduating class. “It is not always a popular subject on college campuses today, particularly when at times it may seem to some an anachronistic and irrelevant pursuit … it is my job, however, to remind people the story, memory, anecdote, feeling, of the power our past also exerts to help us better understand what’s going on now.
“It is my job to try to discern patterns and themes through history to enable us to interpret our dizzying and sometimes dismaying present.”
He went on to note moments in history, small and large, personal and global — from the moment he saw his own mother crying after neighbors, who heard about her struggle with medical insurance in wake of a cancer diagnosis, collected $120 to give to the family, to 1858, when Abraham Lincoln was elected as candidate for the U.S. and made his now-famous statement, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Burns said he has spent his “entire professional life trying to resurrect small moments within the larger sweep of American history,” like these.
“The past often offers an illuminating and clear-headed perspective from which you can observe and reconcile the passions of the present moment, just when they threaten to overwhelm us,” he said.
And the nation’s house is again divided against itself, Burns said, pointing to the current presidential election. He had strong, unapologetic words for the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, whom he never named explicitly but described as an “infantile, bullying man” who makes “phony, bombastic and contradictory promises” and behaves like a “spoiled, misbehaving child hoping somehow to still have dessert.”
“He is an insult to our history,” Burns said, urging graduates to take action.
“Before you do anything with your well-earned degree, you must do everything you can to defeat the retrograde forces that have invaded our democratic process, divided our house; to fight against no matter your political persuasion the dictatorial tendencies of the candidate with zero experience in the much-maligned but subtle art of governance,” Burns said.
Burns ended his speech with other more typical nuggets of wisdom for graduates: “Be curious, not cool. Feed your soul every day. … Don’t confuse success with excellence. … Bite off more than you can chew. … Do not lose your enthusiasm.”
Others included: read, travel, vote and and make babies.
In his closing remarks, Hennessy honored the impact Etchmendy’s 16 years of service have had on the campus, from boosting financial aid to capital improvements to faculty diversity.
He ended with a meta-historical reference, quoting remarks that Stanford’s first president, David Starr Jordan, gave to the class of 1905 — remarks Hennessy quoted in his own first-ever commencement speech in 2001.
“Whatever you have acquired should be an impulse to action,” Jordan said. “There is no virtue in knowledge, in training, in emotion or in aspiration except as you use them in the conduct of life.”
“As you leave, I hope you carry with you a strong determination to make your own contribution to a better world, and to exemplify the best of the Stanford spirit,” Hennessy continued. “Make us proud; I know you will.”
As he left, John Hennessy quoted Eugenicist David Starr Jordan. Not the quote about the inferiority of nonwhite races, some other quote but who cares since it was by a racist. Thanks Hennessy, please go now and take your sidekick with you. “As I look out over a sea of rape protestors and an airplane flying overhead also protesting rape, and having just had the Keynote chastise me in full public view for not listening to rape victims, and having still not done a damn thing about rape other than claim that we are “leaders” and having left this guy over here in charge and he apparently played with matches the whole time, I bid you farewell. Don’t worry I’m not going far, I’ll still be on the Board of Trustees where I will make sure that the next provost is also terrible and that nothing happens that challenges my legacy or changes direction. Ladies, stay away from dumpsters!”
And then he dropped the mic and walked offstage to the sound of thunderous applause.
Commencement speaker Ken Burns used the central 20% of his remarks telling Stanford students they must oppose and fight Donald Trump. It’s a good speech, but I think highly inappropriate for a commencement address.
Link to Ken Burns speech: http://static.politico.com/78/71/5df876354445805f6edb6bca4da4/ken.pdf
I disagree with @Hopenchange above. I thought Ken Burns’ call to action highly appropriate in a commencement address to young people as they stand on the threshold of adult membership in a larger civil society, in which they can expect to assume both its privileges and responsibilities.
Here’s the portion of Burns speech about the dangers to our nation posed by Trump, transcending partisan politics, and what young graduates should be doing about it:
“So before you do anything with your well-earned degree, you must do everything you can to defeat the retrograde forces that have invaded our democratic process, divided our house, to fight against, no matter your political persuasion, the dictatorial tendencies of the candidate with zero experience in the much maligned but subtle art of governance; who is against lots of things, but doesn’t seem to be for anything, offering only bombastic and contradictory promises, and terrifying Orwellian statements; a person who easily lies, creating an environment where the truth doesn’t seem to matter; who has never demonstrated any interest in anyone or anything but himself and his own enrichment; who insults veterans, threatens a free press, mocks the handicapped, denigrates women, immigrants and all Muslims; a man who took more than a day to remember to disavow a supporter who advocates white supremacy and the Ku Klux Klan; an infantile, bullying man who, depending on his mood, is willing to discard old and established alliances, treaties and long-standing relationships. I feel genuine sorrow for the understandably scared and – they feel – powerless people who have flocked to his campaign in the mistaken belief that – as often happens on TV – a wand can be waved and every complicated problem can be solved with the simplest of solutions. They can’t. It is a political Ponzi scheme. And asking this man to assume the highest office in the land would be like asking a newly minted car driver to fly a 747.
“As a student of history, I recognize this type. He emerges everywhere and in all eras. We see nurtured in his campaign an incipient proto-fascism, a nativist anti-immigrant Know Nothing-ism, a disrespect for the judiciary, the prospect of women losing authority over their own bodies, African Americans again asked to go to the back of the line, voter suppression gleefully promoted, jingoistic saber rattling, a total lack of historical awareness, a political paranoia that, predictably, points fingers, always making the other wrong. These are all virulent strains that have at times infected us in the past. But they now loom in front of us again – all happening at once. We know from our history books that these are the diseases of ancient and now fallen empires. The sense of commonwealth, of shared sacrifice, of trust, so much a part of American life, is eroding fast, spurred along and amplified by an amoral Internet that permits a lie to circle the globe three times before the truth can get started.
“We no longer have the luxury of neutrality or ‘balance,’ or even of bemused disdain. Many of our media institutions have largely failed to expose this charlatan, torn between a nagging responsibility to good journalism and the big ratings a media circus always delivers. In fact, they have given him the abundant airtime he so desperately craves, so much so that it has actually worn down our natural human revulsion to this kind of behavior. Hey, he’s rich; he must be doing something right. He is not. Edward R. Murrow would have exposed this naked emperor months ago. He is an insult to our history. Do not be deceived by his momentary ‘good behavior.’ It is only a spoiled, misbehaving child hoping somehow to still have dessert.
“And do not think that the tragedy in Orlando underscores his points. It does not. We must ‘disenthrall ourselves,’ as Abraham Lincoln said, from the culture of violence and guns. And then ‘we shall save our country.’
“This is not a liberal or conservative issue, a red state, blue state divide. This is an American issue. Many honorable people, including the last two Republican presidents, members of the party of Abraham Lincoln, have declined to support him. And I implore those “Vichy Republicans” who have endorsed him to please, please reconsider. We must remain committed to the kindness and community that are the hallmarks of civilization and reject the troubling, unfiltered Tourette’s of his tribalism.
“The next few months of your ‘commencement,’ that is to say, your future, will be critical to the survival of our Republic. ‘The occasion is piled high with difficulty.’ Let us pledge here today that we will not let this happen to the exquisite, yet deeply flawed, land we all love and cherish – and hope to leave intact to our posterity. Let us ‘nobly save,’ not ‘meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.'”
Burns, the father of four girls, also had this to say about sexual assault:
“If someone tells you they have been sexually assaulted, take it effing seriously and listen to them. Maybe someday we’ll make the survivor’s eloquent statement as important as Dr. (Martin Luther) King’s letter from the Birmingham jail.”
One day, soon, Ken Burns can set the Trump story to maudlin fiddles (with NPR money).
Be good to each other.
After hearing what Ken Burns said about sexual assault, I thought Vice-President Biden’s “Open Letter” to the Brock Turner sexual assault victim was also worth reading in full. It too is a passionate call to action:
Biden’s “Open Letter to a Courageous Young Woman”
I do not know your name — but your words are forever seared on my soul. Words that should be required reading for men and women of all ages.
Words that I wish with all of my heart you never had to write.
I am in awe of your courage for speaking out — for so clearly naming the wrongs that were done to you and so passionately asserting your equal claim to human dignity.
And I am filled with furious anger — both that this happened to you and that our culture is still so broken that you were ever put in the position of defending your own worth.
It must have been wrenching — to relive what he did to you all over again. But you did it anyway, in the hope that your strength might prevent this crime from happening to someone else. Your bravery is breathtaking.
You are a warrior — with a solid steel spine.
I do not know your name — but I know that a lot of people failed you that terrible January night and in the months that followed.
Anyone at that party who saw that you were incapacitated yet looked the other way and did not offer assistance. Anyone who dismissed what happened to you as “just another crazy night.†Anyone who asked “what did you expect would happen when you drank that much?†or thought you must have brought it on yourself.
You were failed by a culture on our college campuses where one in five women is sexually assaulted — year after year after year. A culture that promotes passivity. That encourages young men and women on campuses to simply turn a blind eye.
The statistics on college sexual assault haven’t gone down in the past two decades. It’s obscene, and it’s a failure that lies at all our feet.
And you were failed by anyone who dared to question this one clear and simple truth: Sex without consent is rape. Period. It is a crime.
I do not know your name — but thanks to you, I know that heroes ride bicycles.
Those two men who saw what was happening to you — who took it upon themselves to step in — they did what they instinctually knew to be right.
They did not say “It’s none of my business.â€
They did not worry about the social or safety implications of intervening, or about what their peers might think.
Those two men epitomize what it means to be a responsible bystander.
To do otherwise — to see an assault about to take place and do nothing to intervene — makes you part of the problem.
Like I tell college students all over this country — it’s on us. All of us.
We all have a responsibility to stop the scourge of violence against women once and for all.
I do not know your name — but I see your unconquerable spirit.
I see the limitless potential of an incredibly talented young woman — full of possibility. I see the shoulders on which our dreams for the future rest.
I see you.
You will never be defined by what the defendant’s father callously termed “20 minutes of action.â€
His son will be.
I join your global chorus of supporters, because we can never say enough to survivors: I believe you. It is not your fault.
What you endured is never, never, never, NEVER a woman’s fault.
And while the justice system has spoken in your particular case, the nation is not satisfied.
And that is why we will continue to speak out.
We will speak to change the culture on our college campuses — a culture that continues to ask the wrong questions: What were you wearing? Why were you there? What did you say? How much did you drink?
Instead of asking: Why did he think he had license to rape?
We will speak out against those who seek to engage in plausible deniability. Those who know that this is happening, but don’t want to get involved. Who believe that this ugly crime is “complicated.â€
We will speak of you — you who remain anonymous not only to protect your identity, but because you so eloquently represent “every woman.â€
We will make lighthouses of ourselves, as you did — and shine.
Your story has already changed lives.
You have helped change the culture.
You have shaken untold thousands out of the torpor and indifference towards sexual violence that allows this problem to continue.
Your words will help people you have never met and never will.
You have given them the strength they need to fight.
And so, I believe, you will save lives.
I do not know your name — but I will never forget you.
The millions who have been touched by your story will never forget you.
And if everyone who shared your letter on social media, or who had a private conversation in their own homes with their daughters and sons, draws upon the passion, the outrage, and the commitment they feel right now the next time there is a choice between intervening and walking away — then I believe you will have helped to change the world for the better.
I am writing this for our weekend housesitter who said she posted an item from our computer before we returned home yesterday afternoon. Apparently it didn’t show up so she asked me if I would try for her and briefly recount what she had written from her notes. Her name is Lara and she lives in college terrace. Her views are her own. I will try to write in her voice. Winter
Lara:
Recalling Judge Perskey will do little to enact overall reform. If change is wanted, then the structure of the Superior Court criminal system needs to be looked at. There’s been nothing said about this.
After the verdict at any criminal trial in the county, a Probation Officer does lengthy interviews with the victim and defendant, then interviews with families, employers, former school people, looks at school records, etc.
Judges don’t do this because it is too time consuming and labor intensive. The Probation Officer then writes a detailed report for the court (available now to the public at palo alto online) and a recommendation to the Judge as to the sentence. Here to Judge Persky – 4-6 months. He took the higher option. This is the system in Santa Clara Co. if not in all of CA. Judges nearly always rely on the recommendation of a trusted Probation Officer since they have the intensive overview.
So overall meaningful reform is system, not Judge based.
It was nit right want he did.
Stanford is a great college.
Some of my friend and family went to Stanford.
Good luck.
@winter, Thanks to Lara for describing the sentencing recommendation process. It is helpful to understand. Still, the judge is in a position to override the recommendation. He should have and could have realized the impact a lenient sentence would have on the victim, our community and on history. The judge is charged with taking a broader view, taking history into account and ultimately it is his responsibility. As Vice President Biden wrote in his letter to the victim, sexual assault on college campuses has not decreased in decades. This was the time for this judge to be diligent, to overrule the recommendation and do the right thing.
I am ashamed to have been a Stanford athlete and grad
Great commencement…except for Ken Burns’ infantile, bullying, phony, bombastic and contradictory remarks about Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
I’ll take my chances with Trump rather than a corrupt and dishonest career politician like Hillary Clinton.
“I’ll take my chances with Trump rather than a corrupt and dishonest career politician like Hillary Clinton.”
In that case, better pack your bags, because Presidente Trump will be sending you right back across the border…
why as a parent would you ever send your child to any institution where they have a 1 in 3 chance of sexual assault and/or a 1 in 3 chance of being “accused” of a sexual assault? Pass!
Thank you graduating senior Allie Koscov for not being afraid to speak your opinion in the midst of what is almost mob hysteria, regarding Stanford’s handling of the Turner case.
That Stanford levied the most serious punishment it can (including banning Turner for life from campus), and is faced with charges of “not doing enough,” is evidence that unthinking activism is going on.
The framework of utter victimhood vs utter demonization (of alleged rapists) is the most off-putting aspect of modern sexual assault activism.
Life is not so simple, folks. When will it ever be allowed to say inconvenient truths at sex consent education workshops: that people do things when drunk, or even buzzed, that they may regret when sober, for example? Or even that people when sober may feel differently afterwards, even though they seemed to want sex at the time?
It is laughable to say that the word “Yes” is the only valid indicator of sexual consent.
Congrats to all the graduating seniors. Please continue to think critically, and speak truth as you see it even if it means bucking current trends.
@Good for the Gander
“I am ashamed to have been a Stanford athlete and grad”
I am also ashamed to have been a Stanford graduate.
I wonder how many others are now, too.
An earlier commenter quoted VP Joe Biden’s eloquent remarks.
I’ll add these from Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on this same subject:
“To every survivor of sexual assault. You have the right to be heard. You have the right to be believed. We’re with you.”
(You can’t make this stuff up.)
Considering this a Stanford problem means being blind to the common SOCIETAL problems represented by this case. Underage drinking, out-of-control drinking, sexual predation, unhealthy gender relationships, macho athletics culture. These problems sadly exist at most U.S. universities. Yes, perhaps we expect to hold Stanford to a higher standard. I wish we held our whole society to a higher standard. I wish we held INDIVIDUALS to a higher standard.
@ “@Nayeli” – You wrote: “In that case, better pack your bags, because Presidente Trump will be sending you right back across the border…”
You do realize that I am a U.S. citizen, right? I was a U.S. citizen before I was married. My parents immigrated to the U.S. legally.
While I have sympathy for those from all around the world who dream of living in this country, I have no patience for those who break into this country and demand a “right” to stay here. Yes, they SHOULD be deported.
Nayeli
Don’t know if you’re a Stanford grad or not, but if you are, I hope your parents didn’t pay full freight for your education because if they did, they just wasted their money paying for your education.
Stanford Alumnae — don’t be embarrassed. Its not your fault they asked Ken Burns to speak at graduation.
The parents got gypped: four years of paying for Stanford tuition and all they get is Michael Moore’s Mini-me at graduation.
Ken Burns might want to go back 30 years and look at the documentary he made about Huey Long and then compare it to the Clintons.
Burns denounced tribalism. Where has he been for the past seven years?
“You do realize that I am a U.S. citizen, right? I was a U.S. citizen before I was married. My parents immigrated to the U.S. legally.”
Right. Of course you are. I should believe you, because you say so.
And pigs will fly.
Again, “@Nayeli,” you have given a fine example of the nagging yet subtle racism that seems to be a very real part of the limousine liberal ideological culture. I am a U.S. citizen whether you believe it or not. I’ve taken the oath and I have renounced any allegiance to any other country. Here is that oath:
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/naturalization-test/naturalization-oath-allegiance-united-states-america
They accuse people like Donald Trump of “racism” when he mentions how America needs to stop ILLEGAL immigration; however, the end of illegal immigration has nothing to do with Hispanic American legal residents or citizens.
They accuse Trump of “bigotry” for perceiving the need for a temporary ban on immigration from nations with high levels of radicalized Muslims (until a proper method of determining risk factors with immigration can be implemented); however, this isn’t the same thing of targeting individuals based upon race or religion.
Immigration reform is vital to any nation — especially our own. Mark Zuckerberg might want an increase of immigration in STEP fields for purposes of altruism or lower labor costs. Both of these are not viable reasons when determining immigration policy. I believe that immigration — particularly educational, vocational or H-1B immigration — should largely be based upon factors like risk, economics and national need.
If there are good American students being turned away from graduate schools, then fewer international students should be allowed in at the cost of turning American students away. If there are many unemployed good American graduates in STEM fields, then the number of immigrants admitted on H-1B visas should be lowered. However, if there is a need, then immigration rates in that field should be raised.
1) You obviously have mastered Google and copy-and-paste.
2) Your love for Trump, a known bigot, liar, and serial con artist, says more about you than you can ever imagine — and not in a good way.
1.) I’m not sure what you’re trying to imply. Yes, I copy and pasted the oath of citizenship. However, the other words are my own.
2.) I never said that I “love” Trump. I just think that he has somewhat better ideas than what many overtly biased members of the press and media try to persuade (or coerce) some people into believing. He wasn’t my first choice. He wasn’t even among my top five choices. However, I am convinced that he is a far better choice than Hillary Clinton.
Interesting that someone who will be shown the door out of the US and calims to be Hispanic female would support a racist and misogynist like trump.
@hardly a unique Stanford problem: You are right, underage drinking, excessive drinking, drugs and sexual assaults/ rapes are NOT unique to Stanford.
The difference is that one in four women on college campuses will be raped or otherwise sexually assaulted. On the Stanford campus, that ratio is one in THREE– the highest in the whole nation of colleges!