At Princeton’s 278th Commencement on Tuesday, May 27, President Christopher L. Eisgruber called on graduating students to stand up for the ideals that define Princeton and other great American colleges and universities.

“Tensions between the academy, public opinion and government policy have ebbed and flowed over the course of American history,” Eisgruber said. “They are now at an unprecedented high point.

“In this tender and pivotal moment, we must stand boldly for the freedoms and principles that define this and other great universities,” he said, eliciting applause and cheers of support from students and their guests at Princeton Stadium.

In his Commencement address, Eisgruber noted: "At the heart of Princeton’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs is a commitment to inculcate a fierce independence of mind.”

“We want you to have the skill and the courage to ask questions that are unsettling and uncomfortable to the world, and, indeed, to you,” Eisgruber told graduating students seated in rows on Powers Field.

“I hope you have embraced this independence during your time here, and that you have also learned how to speak up for what you believe even when it may be uncomfortable to do so,” he continued. “I hope, too, that these habits will stay with you as you venture forth into a world that needs your creativity, your learning, and your valor.”

The University awarded degrees to 1,293 undergraduates in the Class of 2025 and 663 graduate students at the Commencement ceremony, held on a pleasant spring morning.

 

Graduates took time to acknowledge friends and family as they were seated for the ceremony.

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Tori Repp/Fotobuddy

The event capped days of campus celebrations, which included Reunions for alumni; Baccalaureate, featuring an address by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Class of 1975; Class Day with a speech by award-winning podcaster and bestselling author Jay Shetty; and Graduate School Hooding for master's and doctoral degree candidates. The ROTC Commissioning ceremony was held Tuesday afternoon with remarks by Gen. Christopher Cavoli, Class of 1987, Commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Humanistic and scientific achievements toward a better world

Eisgruber began his remarks by recalling the months following his own graduation from Princeton in 1983 and the start of his graduate studies at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

“One of the books I was reading at the time, on the recommendation of a Princeton mentor, was Alexis de Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America,’” Eisgruber said. Tocqueville admired some of what he saw during his visits to America in the 1830s, but "he was deeply skeptical about the country’s ability to produce humanistic and scientific achievements of the kind that distinguish this University,” Eisgruber noted.

Nearly 200 years later, Eisgruber said, “America’s colleges and universities have changed the country for the better” through their teaching, research, creativity and contributions to society.

Princeton Stadium fills up with family and friends of graduating students. 

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Tori Repp/Fotobuddy

“Tocqueville, despite all his truly magnificent insights, did not anticipate the rise of universities like the one from which you graduate today,” Eisgruber told students.

Undergirding the excellence of America’s higher education institutions is a commitment to academic freedom and independent thought.

“Universities might be less vulnerable to criticism and attack if they were bland, innocuous, and neutral — but then they would not be true universities,” Eisgruber said. “We aim to encourage and elevate what Tocqueville depicted as the sometimes irritating tendency of Americans, and democratic citizens more generally, to believe that human intelligence can explain, critique, and improve the world.”

At the same time, Eisgruber acknowledged, colleges and universities must find ways to “listen to thoughtful critics and steward our relationship with the broader society upon which we depend.”

“Universities risk losing public support if they deviate from their core mission of teaching and research, or if they appear to become organs of partisan advocacy rather than impartial forums for the pursuit of truth and the dissemination of knowledge,” he said, prompting more applause from the audience.

Eisgruber applauds for graduating students at the 278th Commencement ceremony. 

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Charles Sykes, Associated Press Images for Princeton University

Extending gratitude, eager to serve

Eisgruber began the ceremony by extending his appreciation to all the families and friends who supported the graduating students along their Princeton journeys. He also led a moment of silence in recognition of loved ones lost by graduates over the past years as well as for people in the wider world, “be they near this campus or far from it, who bear the burdens of loss, injustice, violence, natural disaster, disease, or poverty.”

At the top of the morning, the Rev. Theresa Thames, dean of religious life and of the Chapel, gave the invocation, wishing the Class of 2025 well as they “step into the world to serve.”  

In his remarks, Class of 2025 valedictorian Erik Medina, a chemistry major from Miami, invoked the University’s informal motto: “In the nation’s service and the service of humanity.”

“Now, you all will go on to become great doctors, scientists, and teachers, pioneers in business and law, as well as talented journalists and renowned artists. Of this, I am sure, and in these ways, you will push humanity forward,” he told classmates.  

Amidst this success, Medina said, graduates should remember the greatest way they can serve humanity is to be kind.

“Simply put, the success of the human race is built on a mountain of small deeds,” he said. “We find the will to struggle and the will to succeed because of the people around us. To think, how many success stories hinge on the passing encouragement of a teacher or mentor? How many great leaders stand on the shoulders of their parents’ and grandparents’ sacrifices? How much adversity has been overcome thanks to the kindness of a spouse or a friend?”

Medina then thanked all who helped him, including his faculty and research mentors.

“Farewell to my dear friends, old and new, to classmates and roommates, and to the brothers and sisters we found along the way. Farewell to the Great Class of 2025. I wish you all nothing but the best,” Medina concluded.

Salutatorian Rosie Eden, a classics major from Scottsdale, Arizona, also gave thanks to the many people who helped the Class of 2025 during their four years at Princeton. Her remarks were delivered in Latin, as is University tradition, and deftly weaved in references to both Cicero and Taylor Swift.  

“As we prepare to walk out of FitzRandolph Gate, let us remember the friends, professors, and deeds on campus, for they were shaping us. Let us hold the memories in our hearts as we venture far from these ivy-covered walls,” Eden said, as translated to English.

After the ceremony, students celebrate their traditional exit through FitzRandolph Gate. 

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Denise Applewhite, Office of Communications

More Commencement highlights

During Commencement, Princeton also presented six honorary degrees, including one in absentia, to the following individuals:

• Joshua Boger, a scientist and entrepreneur whose work in the field of biotechnology has transformed the lives of countless individuals suffering from chronic illnesses.
• Lex Frieden, an architect of the Americans with Disabilities Act who has helped advance the global movement for disability rights.
• Sherrilyn Ifill, a leading civil rights attorney who has helped shape national conversations about social justice and racial equality.
• Nancy Weiss Malkiel, a pathbreaking historian and former Princeton dean of the college whose leadership enriched the lives of generations of Princetonians.
• Daniel Chee Tsui, a Nobel laureate in physics and Princeton’s Arthur Legrand Doty Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Emeritus.
• Omar M. Yaghi, a pioneering chemist who serves as the James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the founding director of the Berkeley Global Science Institute.

The ceremony also included recognition of the winners of the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, which honors Princeton faculty with sustained records of excellence in teaching undergraduates and graduate students, as well as the recipients of the Princeton Prize for Distinguished Secondary School Teaching, which is given to outstanding teachers from secondary schools in New Jersey.

After the ceremony, many students made their way from the stadium to FitzRandolph Gate at the front of campus. It is a Princeton tradition for undergraduates to walk out the center gate only after their graduation. Family members and friends greeted them as they proudly passed through the gate, eager to capture the moment.

Visit Princeton’s YouTube channel to rewatch graduation events, and follow #Princeton25 on Facebook, X and Instagram for more highlights, photos and videos.

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