Conservative political and social critic David Brooks, who pens a regular column for the New York Times, will serve as this year’s commencement speaker in June.
Brooks has delivered several commencement addresses including one at Wake Forest University in 2007, both Brandeis and Rice Universities in 2011 and Sewanee, the University of the South in 2013.
Brooks was unavailable for comment by press time.
Last May, NPR included Brooks’ speeches at Wake Forest, Rice and Sewanee in their list of best commencement speeches of all time.
Recurring themes include the importance of friendship, companionship, happiness and emotional well-being over material or professional success.
“I’ve observed a few things about the few really great people I’ve had a chance to meet and cover...they need to be around people,” Brooks said at Wake Forest in 2007. “You and I require sleep. They require people.”
In Brooks’ 2011 address at Rice, he advised graduates, “don’t go by how the coin flips — go by your emotional reaction to the coin flip.”
Of the 10 students surveyed by The Dartmouth, six expressed dissatisfaction with the choice of speaker and believed that they were not alone in their opinion.
Most cited his conservative views as the reason for their concerns. Three students said they did not know of Brooks before the announcement. Only one person interviewed said he was interested in hearing Brooks speak.
Heidi Ahn ’18 noted that several comments on the anonymous social media application Yik Yak reflected widespread student displeasure.
Brooks, along with six others, will be awarded an honorary degree from the College. Steven Chu, former U.S. Secretary of Energy, will receive a Doctor of Science, along with Columbia University geochemist and MacArthur fellow Terry Plank ’85.
Valerie Steele ’78, the director and curator at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, will receive a Doctor of Arts, and Earl Lewis, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Russell Carson ’65, philantropist and co-founder of the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe and William Neukom ’64, founder of the World Justice Project and former executive vice president of law and corporate affairs at Microsoft, will receive Doctor of Humane Letters.
Plank said she was surprised and “in shock” to have received the honorary Doctor of Science. She said she felt proud to represent the College well through her work and noted the importance of recognizing women in science and in particular the earth science program at Dartmouth.
Plank’s current work revolves around volcanic eruptions as she examines why they erupt, how to determine how explosive they will be and how to predict when they will erupt.
She said her past work was mainly concerned with the earth’s core.
Plank said she will be traveling to the Aleutian Islands this summer to continue her work studying volcanoes but plans to attend the College’s commencement exercises.
Steele said she was similarly surprised by the honor and will also come to Hanover for the ceremony.
“It’s very surprising and pleasant to have gotten the honorary degree,” Steele said. “I don’t know how it happened, but it’s very lovely.”
Steele studies the history of fashion, which she describes as a “neglected area.”
She said that she began curating exhibits at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1997 and is currently working on one exhibit for next fall involving the “fashion underground” from the 1980s and ’90s to the present day as well as a show for next year looking at the fashion of a French aristocrat.
Erin Lee contributed reporting.
