Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart sets the tone.
By: Jeff Milgram
Everyone was a comic Monday at Princeton University’s Class Day.
"Welcome to Cicada Fest 2004, otherwise known as Class Day," William Robinson said in greeting the more than 1,100 graduating seniors and their families gathered on Princeton’s Cannon Green under cloudy skies. Mr. Robinson was co-chair of the Class Day committee.
One of the proud parents was U.S. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), onetime Democratic presidential candidate, who is attending the graduation of his daughter, Cate.
The university’s president, Shirley M. Tilghman, even got into the act. "This is your day, not mine, so I will be blessedly brief. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I can’t promise to be brief tomorrow," she said.
The seniors will end their four years at Princeton today when the university holds its 257th Commencement beginning at 11 a.m.
Class Day began more than 100 years ago when graduating seniors gathered informally the day before commencement.
Senior Jay Katsir gave the first of three student speeches and talked about his anxiety-ridden four years. David Brundige explained how he used a haiku as his essay on why he wanted to attend Princeton. Adam Peterson took the audience on his first trip from his hometown in Canada to Princeton, a ride with family and friends in a crowded Jeep.
After the student awards were handed out, the real comic, Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show," gave the keynote address.
Mr. Stewart, who grew up in Lawrence Township, described himself as "a fellow Hoagie Haven enthusiast."
He noted the accomplishments and plans of some of the award-winners.
"I, too, will be spending the summer working at an orphanage in Tanzania. I do it very year. It’s actually cushier than its sounds," he said.
Named an honorary member of the Class of 2004, Mr. Stewart humorously thanked the students for giving him a "novelty jacket" a black-and-orange "beer" jacket.
"I will think of Princeton University when I go into my attic and open the box where I keep stuff I never use," he said.
As a "townie," Mr. Stewart poked fun at the university, which he called "a cruel unfaithful … goddess."
He noted that comedian Jerry Seinfeld gave last year’s Class Day speech.
"Frankly, I think you can do better," he said of the decision to invite him this year.
Mr. Stewart recently gave the commencement address at William and Mary College, his alma mater. His older brother, Larry, graduated from Princeton with an economics degree in 1982.
Mr. Stewart called the seniors "the last class at Princeton to benefit from grade inflation."
His address was not unabashedly political, although he did touch on the presidential election and the war on terror.
"Whoever wins this year’s presidential race can be blamed on Yale," he said, reminding the audience that both President George W. Bush and the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, graduated from Yale.
He gently criticized the war on terror. "We broke it. Sorry," Mr. Stewart said. "You fix this thing and you’re the next greatest generation."
Mr. Stewart also poked fun at Germany "the Michael Jordan of war," in his words for not joining the American coalition in Iraq. "They’re like a recovered alcoholic, afraid of going to a bar and taking a sniff," he said.
In his speech, he mentioned several local institutions Hoagie Haven, PJ’s Pancake House Restaurant and The Annex Restaurant although not in entirely complimentary terms.
His 15-minute speech did have some serious moments. "In life, there is no core curriculum, everything is an elective," Mr. Stewart said. "College is something you complete. Life is something you experience."
Later, in a session with the press, Mr. Stewart said the students are well prepared to face the future.
"I’m more than happy to turn over the keys," Mr. Stewart said. "But I don’t want to see them fix global warming next year."
He also admitted that he has driven with his wife from New York City to Princeton for the sole purpose of going to Hoagie Haven on Nassau Street for sandwiches.
Mr. Stewart said he is working on a book, to be published in September, called "America (The Book)," a guide to democracy.
Also at the ceremony, Corey Sanders, a computer science major from Denville, received the Harold Willis Dodds Achievement Award, recognizing the senior who best embodies the qualities of Princeton’s 15th president, Harold Dodds, "particularly in the qualities of clear thinking, moral courage, a patient and judicious regard for the opinion of others and a thorough devotion to the welfare of the university and the life of the mind."
The Allen Macy Dulles ’51 Award was given to Anne Healy, a student at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from Keene, N.H. The award goes to the senior whose activities best represent or exemplify Princeton’s informal motto: "Princeton in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations."
Taufiq Rahim, a Woodrow Wilson School major from Vancouver, British Columbia, received the Frederick Douglass Service Award, which is given to the senior who has exhibited "courage, leadership, intellectual achievement and a willingness to contribute unselfishly toward a deeper understanding of the experiences of racial minorities and who, in so doing, reflects the tradition of service embodied in education at Princeton."
The Class of 1901 Medal, which goes to the senior who, in the judgment of his or her classmates, has done the most for Princeton, was awarded to Rishi Jaitly, a history major from Greenwich, Conn.
Eli Goldsmith, president of the class for the past four years, received the W. Sanderson Detwiler 1903 Prize, awarded to the senior who, in the judgment of his or her classmates, has done the most for the class.
The Priscilla Glickman ’92 Memorial Prize, which honors "independence and imagination in the area of community service," was given to Robin Williams, a Woodrow Wilson School major from Greensboro, N.C.
Athletic awards went to Jonathan Nuger, Ryan Boyle, Emily Kroshus, Claire Miller and Theresa Sherry.