Passion Is Theme of Columbia College Class Day

Passion was the recurring theme at Monday’s Columbia College Class Day—a ceremony where the color of the sky matched the class of 2008’s caps and gowns, which blew ceaselessly in the chilling wind.

It started when Columbia College Alumni Association President Brian Krisberg, CC ’81, was met with applause and laughter after saying, “I’m a passionate guy.” CC Dean Austin Quigley went off script, saying that because of “my passionate feelings” towards students, “I decided I care too much to allow you to graduate.” University President Lee Bollinger, however, said, “As president, I am not passionate about any of you ... I like you,” he continued, but “I am not passionate.”

Seniors stood at the cusp of a precipice beyond which is a world where meals cannot be charged to a prepaid card and New York City housing is not guaranteed, but they had an experienced partner to help them cross it. New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein, CC ’67, regaled the near-graduates with stories of how he made the transition from Columbia to a life “out of my comfort zone.”

As the head of the largest public school system in the country, Klein oversees more than 1,400 schools and 1.1 million students. Previously, Klein served as a corporate lawyer, deputy counsel to President Bill Clinton, an assistant U.S. attorney general who spearheaded the suit that helped bust Microsoft’s monopoly, and a businessman.
As his résumé might suggest, Klein said that when he graduated Columbia, he never would have predicted he would speak at Class Day about his tenure as a leader in education. When he graduated, his feelings were as ambivalent as the message on a T-shirt he had seen on the street containing the juxtaposed phrases “I’m so excited” and “I’m so afraid.” Klein said that the ambivalence that typically marks graduation should be embraced. In wrapping up a speech that leaned on the words of Theodore Roosevelt and others, Klein said: “Are you now completing the best years of your lives? ... It’s up to you.”

Julia Kalow, the class salutatorian and a double major in chemistry and creative writing, spoke before Klein, and reflected his sentiments by saying that the story of a Columbia education is “a story without an ending.”

Dean of Student Affairs Chris Colombo emceed the event and, along with CC Dean of Academic Affairs Kathryn Yatrakis, presented awards to student leaders and academic stars. With the passion he promised, Quigley told those present, “Your lives will always be Columbia lives.” Quigley lauded the contributions the graduates are poised to make, and said: “Others can benefit from the special combination of talents that entered the world with you, as your ... parents held you in their arms, and heard, for the first time, that new voice that is now about to help shape a new era.”

Bollinger echoed Quigley in saying that the world “really needs you.” He told the graduates that their future education is in their own hands, and warned them “not to be daunted by expertise.” Based on his own experiences—he said that when he entered Columbia’s School of Law in 1968, he had no intention of becoming a university president, who he said were “objects of loathing”—Bollinger told seniors to “take the long view of life.”

After presentations from the Senior Fund committee, which received record-setting 85
percent participation this year, and a speech by class of 2008 President Neda Navab, members of the class of 2008 walked to the stage to shake hands with administrators and receive pins. Class Day closed in the cold as a cappella group Clefhangers sang Columbia alma mater “Sans Souci”: “What if’t be wintry chill / Rain, storm or summer’s thrill? Tomorrow’s the future still / This is today!”

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