More than 4,000 students graduate from Brooklyn College at 91st Commencement
On June 1 and 2, Brooklyn College celebrated its 91st Commencement with more than 4,300 graduating students. The Class of 2016 — with 3,125 baccalaureate and 1,239 master’s degree recipients — was the largest among Brooklyn higher education institutions. Master’s ceremonies were held at Whitman Hall and the baccalaureate ceremony was held on the college’s East Quadrangle.
Paul Beatty, educator, satirist, and winner of the National Book Critics Circle award, delivered the master’s I keynote address and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Noted lighting designer Howard Brandston, who received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, was the master’s II keynote speaker.
“Brooklyn College opened up a world I never knew,” said 1958 graduate Chief Justice Deborah Poritz to the baccalaureate candidates. Poritz, who received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, has had a distinguished career in public service as an attorney and a jurist. “I never dreamed that what I learned then about language would provide the key to understanding the law. It was not until I became a lawyer and a judge that I fully understood the gift I had been given.”
Poritz asked the graduating class to “make a commitment to participate in the democratic process. You must work hard to shape the world you live in to inform, not inflame, through direct involvement in public discourse. Armed with what you’ve learned at Brooklyn College you must do better, you will do better.”