During Thursday’s Commencement Day Afternoon Exercises, former Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick '78 told graduates that he wanted them to feel “uneasy” about problems facing society, such as income inequality and climate change.
Ten people received honorary degrees from the University, including Yale President Peter Salovey and former Massachusetts governor Deval L. Patrick ’78.
“Your education gives you the capacity to harness fear using imagination—to treat sources of fear as a problem to be solved with creativity, thought and daring,” University President Drew G. Faust said.
More than 1,000 members of the Class of 2015 participated in Senior Gift, according to Senior Gift Co-Chairs Katie C. Gamble ’15 and Alissa Song ’15.
Gabrielle Giffords represented Arizona’s 8th district in the U.S. House of Representatives until she was shot in the head in 2011 while meeting with a group of constituents.
“Government can be a great force for good, but it requires a cast of mind that I would describe as entrepreneurial,” said Miliband, who served as U.K. Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and as a Member of Parliament for South Shields from 2001 to 2013. “That is the role of politics, to add entrepreneurship to necessary bureaucracy.”