Dr. Johnnetta Cole, a well-known author, scholar, and activist for social and economic justice, presented this year's commencement address and was enthusiastically received by the Class of 1998.
On Sunday morning, May 24, Johnnetta B. Cole, the first African American woman president of Spelman College, delivered Mount Holyoke College's 161st commencement address. Quoting Sojourner Truth, Nelson Mandela, Margaret Mead, and Mount Holyoke founder Mary Lyon, Cole urged the Class of 1998 to work for social and economic justice and peace throughout the world.
At the commencement ceremony in the Richard Glenn Gettell Amphitheater, 430 A.B. degrees, two M.A. degrees, and two M.A.T. degrees were granted. Fifteen certificates for international students were also awarded. The ceremony, held on a perfect late May morning, was punctuated frequently by applause and cheers.
"My sisters," Cole said, "the world needs for you not only to do the work that men have traditionally done--you must do it in new and better ways. For example, once you are on the top floor of a corporate building, you must manage more fairly than has traditionally happened in the world of business and you must help the complexion of that floor as you bring more folks there who have traditionally been blocked by one kind of ceiling or another."
Cole,
affectionately known to Spelman's community and others as "Sister
President," made history in 1987 when she was inaugurated as
president of Spelman, a historically black women's college, where she
served until 1997. A noted author, scholar and educational leader,
Cole has written a number of books, including Conversations: Straight Talk
with America's Sister President (1993); her most recent book is
Dream the
Boldest Dreams:
And Other Lessons of Life (1997).
A champion of the power of education and of women's education in particular, Dr. Cole is now Presidential Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Women's Studies and African-American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta.
In her address, Cole also called upon Mount Holyoke's Class of 1998 to join with women worldwide and follow in the steps of nineteenth-century abolitionist and feminist Sojourner Truth to "help get the world right side up again." Emphasizing that their years in college had prepared the graduating class for this task, Cole outlined three steps necessary for success in this ambitious enterprise: knowing who you are; striving to advance the position of women; and acting in the service of others.
Cole said, "If we are to genuinely engage in community building, not simply 'do goodism,' then we must go into communities as partners in transformation not missionaries of salvation. We must assume that such communities have many assets, not just a string of liabilities. And more than anything else, we must park at the local dump any signs of arrogance and attitudes of 'I know it all.' "
Four other women joined Cole in receiving honorary degrees on Sunday. They were Mary E. Clutter, assistant director, biological sciences, the National Science Foundation; Anita L. DeFrantz, vice president, International Olympic Committee; Nancy Gustafson '78, internationally acclaimed opera singer; and Lillian M. C. Randall '50, retired research curator of manuscripts at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. This year, for the first time, honorary degree recipients also addressed the Class of 1998.
Student commencement speaker Meghan Elizabeth Freed spoke of her unbridled love of the college, saying, "I feel like I might be more appropriate on the sidelines with blue and white pom-poms and a bullhorn than on the stage with a mortarboard. But here I am, in all my sappy glory, believing with my whole heart that this place is unparalleled. And beautiful. And magical."
Visit the Academy of Achievement for exclusive interviews and photos of Johnnetta Cole.
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