 |
|
     |
|
|
Even as protesters unfurled signs calling her a “war criminal,” U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright put it best: “It’s great to be in Berkeley!” Commencement Convocation, now in its tenth year, is a project of the Senior Class Council, a CAA-sponsored student organization. It’s not a graduation ceremony; students receive their diplomas in one of the dozens of departmental ceremonies sprinkled throughout the month of May. Berkeley graduates used to gather together for the conferral of degrees, but by the late 1960s, the event, held in Memorial Stadium to accommodate the crowds, had become too lengthy, too impersonal—and too fraught with protest. In 1970, the campus switched to a system of smaller, more intimate departmental commencements. What convocation has restored is the chance for all the graduates to come together as a class, one last time. Friends can sit together, regardless of major. And the seniors can invite a keynote speaker of some stature to address their class. This year’s Senior Class Council president, Lisa Delehunt ’00, said the millennial class set its sights high in choosing a speaker. “We were very conscious that being the Year 2000 class was something special, and we wanted someone of international prominence,” she said. Delehunt introduced Albright, the highest-ranking female public official in U.S. history, as “the greatest woman of our times,” a comment that was met with applause and cheers by most of the audience members and with boos and heckling by a few. As Albright stepped to the podium, several groups of demonstrators brought out signs denouncing U.S. sanctions against Iraq and American intervention in Colombia. Chants of “Madeleine Albright, you can’t hide/We charge you with genocide” occasionally drowned out the Secretary’s words, but she took it with good humor. Fifty-nine protesters were ejected from the Greek Theatre, but no arrests were made. Albright said that, at her own college graduation in 1959, she had never dreamed of one day becoming Secretary of State. “It’s not that I was modest,” she said. “It’s that I had never seen a Secretary of State wearing a skirt.” Albright said she was particularly proud of “bringing efforts to advance the status of women into the mainstream of U.S. foreign policy,” citing efforts to stop forced prostitution and other forms of violence against women, such as dowry murders. “Some say this is all cultural and there’s nothing any of us can do about it. I say it’s criminal, and we each have a responsibility to stop it,” said Albright to resounding applause. She also lauded Berkeley students for their devotion to public service, noting that the University had produced more Peace Corps volunteers than any other college. “To those who say your generation is self-absorbed, I say, ‘Come to Berkeley,’”she said. Albright left the Greek Theatre immediately after her remarks, but several of the other speakers at the event referred to them. CAA President Alfredo Terrazas ’74 called Albright “a courageous woman” but reminded the audience that the protesters “also did a courageous act by demonstrating here today.” The final speaker of the day, University Medalist Fadia Rafeedie, also addressed Albright’s visit, in less than complimentary terms. The 22-year-old history major was awarded the medal, which is given to the University’s top graduating senior, by Chancellor Robert Berdahl at the ceremony. Rafeedie, who appeared to be writing and rewriting her speech on the stage, ultimately laid aside her text and opted to “speak from the heart” and “give a voice to the protesters” who were silenced. The daughter of Palestinian immigrants and an activist on behalf of Palestinian rights, Rafeedie criticized Albright for not talking about the U.S. sanctions against Iraq, saying, “Sometimes not speaking about things is like lying about them.” Rafeedie said the sanctions are causing “genocide, another Holocaust” in Iraq and that Albright “typifies everything I am against” and is doing “horrible things.” Rafeedie, who is headed to Yale Law School next year and hopes to become an activist-scholar, is no stranger to controversy or to protest. She was praised in her University Medal application by Near Eastern studies professor Muhammad Siddiq for her penchant for choosing controversial topics and arguing them persuasively “against the grain of accepted ‘expert’ wisdom and the collective sentiment of the class.” Rafeedie was active in the Arab Student Union while earning all A’s and A-pluses in her classes. She is not, she says, the type to be “locked in an ivory tower.” Unless the search for truth and meaning is “applied at ground level,” it holds no interest for her. The other speakers of the day also challenged the seniors to apply their educations at ground level. Chancellor Berdahl told the graduates a West African folktale about a crocodile with two heads but only one stomach. The lesson, he said, was that those who share the same destiny must work together for mutual benefit. He told the graduates who will make up the “knowledge economy” that “It is up to you to shape the questions, to analyze what is useful to know. It is up to you to harness this remarkable technology to serve the public good.” Law professor Robert Berring, the faculty speaker, warned the graduates that from now on, “you give up the chance to say, ‘I never had a shot.’ You’re joining the elite of this society. You have to be careful, because you’ll probably get what you want—so decide what your values are now.” Berring finished with a request and a command: a request to thank the graduates’ family members and friends who had supported them throughout their college years, and a command “to go out and party like you’ve never partied before.” The cheering went on and on. |
| |||||||||||
| About
CAA Contact
Us
Update
your Address CAA Career Opportunities Privacy Policy |
©2009 California Alumni
Association. All Rights Reserved For questions about CAA: info@alumni.berkeley.edu Technical inquiries: web@alumni.berkeley.edu
|
Alumni House Berkeley, CA 94720-7520 Toll-Free: (888) CAL-ALUM Phone: (510) 642-7026 Fax: (510) 642-6252
|
