It was a class whose time on College Hill was marked by some of the most polarizing political events of modern American life. “How might history record the significant occurrences of your time here?” asked Beverly Ledbetter, the University’s chief legal officer since 1978, who gave the honorary baccalaureate oration on the occasion of her retirement. “Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Times Up, March 4 Our Lives. With remarkable brevity, these…slogans have captured some of the most important social justice movements of our time.” Those same themes reappeared throughout Commencement. “Grant us the capacity for justice that our words may speak for the voiceless,” said University chaplain Rev. Janet Cooper Nelson in her opening prayer. “May Brunonian endeavor be both blessing and privilege for those who have neither.”
