A joyful atmosphere filled the Brandeis campus on May 18 as the Class of 2025 gathered with family and friends to celebrate the university’s 74th Commencement.
University Professor Jonathan Sarna ’75, GSAS MA’75, H’25, the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, delivered the keynote address to undergraduate students during the morning ceremony.
Physicist and former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute president Shirley Ann Jackson, H’25, addressed graduate students in a separate afternoon ceremony.
Brandeis awarded three honorary degrees. Sarna, a preeminent historian of American Judaism and a Jewish communal leader, received an honorary Doctor of Letters. Jackson, whom Time Magazine called “perhaps the ultimate role model for women in science,” received an honorary Doctor of Science. Businessman and activist Jim Obergefell, H’25, the lead plaintiff in the landmark 2015 Supreme Court case legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, received an honorary Doctor of Laws.
In all, Brandeis awarded more than 1,700 degrees to undergraduate and graduate students.