commencement

Journalist Ray Suarez Will Deliver K’s 2014 Commencement Address, Receive Honorary Degree

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Female graduate hugging a well-wisherVeteran journalist Ray Suarez will deliver the 2014 Commencement address at Kalamazoo College on Sunday June 15, in a ceremony beginning at 1:00 p.m. on the campus Quad. Suarez will address approximately 300 members of the Class of 2014 and receive an honorary degree (Doctor of Humane Letters) from the College. Ms. Xinyu Hu ’14 will also address the graduates in her role as senior speaker.

The event is free and open to the public. The College sets up about 3,000 chairs on the Quad, but guests are invited to bring a bag chair or a blanket to stretch out on the grass. The weatherman says no rain! But just in case, Anderson Athletic Center on Academy is the alternate site. Unfortunately, the gym can only accommodate the graduates, some of their family members, and K administrators/faculty, and we use a ticketing process for that. Parking will be in high demand, so give yourself extra time.

For those unable to attend, K Commencement will be livestreamed.

Suarez is the permanent host of the Al Jazeera America daily program “Inside Story.” He joined the new American news channel in November 2013 after an extensive television and radio career in which he excelled at delivering, as Al Jazeera America president Kate O’Brian put it, “compelling coverage of the most challenging news stories and events with objectivity and depth, punctuated by Ray’s own brand of thoughtful analysis. That’s exactly what ‘Inside Story’ is all about.”

Suarez came from PBS’ “NewsHour,” where he worked from 1999 to 2013, most recently as its chief national correspondent. He also served as the lead correspondent for the program’s global health coverage, reporting on some of the world’s most threatening health crises from Africa, Latin America and Asia. Before joining PBS, he hosted National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” for six years.

The Brooklyn native who now lives in Washington, D.C. is the author of the critically acclaimed “Latino Americans,” the companion book to the PBS documentary series of the same name, published in September 2013. He also is the author of “The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America” and “The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration” and has contributed to several other books.

A Commitment to Human Depth

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Rachel Kushner with her 1964 Ford Galaxie 500
Rachel Kushner with her 1964 Ford Galaxie 500.

Rachel Kushner, the 2009 Summer Common Reading author, returned to Kalamazoo College for the 2013 commencement, where she received an honorary degree (Doctor of Humane Letters) and delivered an important speech about the future and “movements of the young.”

Kushner asked the Class of 2013 many questions. The most important: “How has this experience of college formed you, and what does it mean, at this intersection of your past, and future?” Kushner compared time to water, always flowing, changing us gradually.

She emphasized the importance of books throughout the course of her speech. “By reading books, you can understand greater patterns in the movement of people through history, even history that you never witnessed yourself.”

Kushner’s talk posited a hypothetical Q & A, the questions of which touched on current news, the young, and novels. A sample question: “Was Occupy, the Arab Spring, the anti-austerity movements across Europe, and in Greece, and now in Turkey—all, by the way, historical events that happened while you were in college—were these essentially movements of the young, but about and including, a whole spectrum of people? —Yes”.

She closed with advice on how to enter the world of art, knowledge, and love. One must commit to “human depth–beyond jobs, profits, debt, petty differences, résumés, and grad school applications. Read, and live engaged with ideas. No matter what happens in your life, no one can take that away from you”.

For 13 years the College’s Summer Common Reading program has brought to campus writers of startling renown. Kushner is no exception, after she became a New York Times Bestseller with her novel from the Summer Common Reading, Telex from Cuba. She’s now making a splash in the literary world with her new novel The Flamethrowers.

The Flamethrowers takes place in the 1970’s. The protagonist is a woman in her early 20s, nicknamed Reno. She moves to New York to become an artist, and there falls in love with an Italian man, and with motorcycles; she quickly becomes the “fastest chic in the world.”

Kushner was born in Eugene, Ore., and graduated from the University of California-Berkley, majoring in political economy. After Berkley, Kushner headed to Columbia University to earn her Master of Fine Arts degree.

She now lives in Los Angeles. She drives a ’64 Ford Galaxie 500, much like the ride of her character, Reno.

Kalamazoo College Commencement 2013

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Students tossing graduation caps in the airKalamazoo College will host Commencement for the Class of 2013 on Sunday, June 16, at 1:00 p.m., on the campus Quad. About 3,000 people are expected to attend the event, which is free and open to the public.

A total of 344 graduates from 27 states and eight foreign countries (China, Ecuador, Haiti, Hong Kong, Jamaica, South Korea, Thailand, Zambia) will receive Bachelor’s of Arts degrees in 30 majors; 65 graduates are double-majors. Approximately 55 percent of class members are female, 45 percent are male, and more than 19 percent self-report as students of color.

For the first time, the K Commencement will be live-streamed via the Internet. Visit the Kalamazoo College Commencement webpage (www.kzoo.edu/alumni/commencement) on Sunday, June 16, at 1:00 p.m. to watch the ceremony live.

On Saturday, K hosts a Senior Awards Program at 1:30 and a baccalaureate service at 8:00 p.m. for seniors and their families in Stetson Chapel.

Graduating senior Regina Pell was chosen by her K classmates to deliver Commencement remarks on their behalf. Pell is a history major from Grand Rapids who studied abroad at Goldsmiths University in London as a junior. She also completed one concentration in American Studies and a second in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Walter E. Massey, Ph.D., will deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary doctorate of science degree. Dr. Massey is president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a post he assumed in the fall of 2010. He is also the president emeritus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, having served as president there from 1995 to 2007. Immediately prior to that post, he was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs of the University of California system. A prominent physicist, Dr. Massey served as director of the Argonne National Laboratory from 1979 to 1984, and was professor of physics and vice president of research at the University of Chicago from 1979 to 1991. He also served as director of the National Science Foundation from 1991 to 1993, appointed by former President George H.W. Bush. Additionally, he served as professor of physics and dean of the college at Brown University.

Rachel Kushner, author of Telex from Cuba and the recently published The Flamethrowers, will also receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters degree and speak to K seniors. Kushner was the Class of 2013’s Summer Common Reading author and spoke to class members during their fall 2009 orientation at K. At the time, Ms. Kushner was a finalist for the National Book Award and for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was a winner of the California Book Award. Kushner earned a B.A. degree from the University of California in Berkeley and a Masters in Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. Along with her novels she has written numerous features for ArtForum, edited the infamous literary magazines Grand Street and BOMB, and founded Soft Targets, a magazine devoted to art, literary theory, poetry, and fiction. She is a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow.