Brandeis Magazine

Though the weather was sweltering, Brandeis’ first in-person Commencement in three years was alive with joy and excitement.

On May 22, as temperatures soared into the 90s, the Class of 2022 assembled in Gosman Sports and Convocation Center, along with throngs of friends and family, for the university’s 71st Commencement.

In a celebration double-header, the Classes of 2020 and 2021 were also welcomed back to campus for [Re]Commencement, a special in-person ceremony held later in the day. These classes’ original graduation exercises had been held remotely because of the pandemic.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, H’17, the keynote speaker, urged the Class of 2022 to put aside cynicism and frustration about the state of American politics and be active citizens. “Don’t let your stake in your neighbors’ dreams and struggles be a purely abstract idea,” he said. “Bring it to life in the way you behave and the things you do.”

Patrick was joined onstage by American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris, P’05, who received an honorary degree from President Ron Liebowitz. Mathematician and aerospace engineer Christine Mann Darden, who was also given an honorary degree, was unable to attend the ceremony.

Marta Kauffman ’78, H’20, co-creator of “Friends” and “Grace and Frankie,” advised the [Re]Commencement audience to “hold on to your friends and lift each other up, [...] stay open, resist, persist, insist, elect.”

All told, 854 undergraduates in the Class of 2022 earned diplomas, as did 295 grad students from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management; 142 from Brandeis International Business School; 265 from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; and 129 from the Rabb School of Graduate and Professional Studies.