Dartmouth got it right.
By selecting Rachel Dratch ’88 as the 2026 Commencement speaker, the College chose a talented, accomplished alumna with broad appeal and a lived understanding of the institution she will address.
Just as importantly, Dartmouth made the choice in a year when symbolism matters. Fifty years after the Class of 1976, the first graduating class to include women, the College placed a Dartmouth woman at the center of its most important ceremonial stage. That was the right decision, and Dartmouth should build on it.
Commencement is the one moment when Dartmouth should speak in its own voice. That voice should ordinarily belong to its graduates.
This year’s announcement shows why. A commencement address is not simply another campus event or a celebrity booking. It is one of the few moments when Dartmouth speaks for itself and does so ceremonially, as a whole. On the day students become alumni, the College is presenting a life it believes worth emulating and a story it believes worth telling.
Dratch offers exactly that. She majored in drama and psychology, found her footing in Dartmouth’s improv scene and now serves on the board of advisors of the Hopkins Center for the Arts. She knows Hanover winters, the particular intensity of this place, the loyalty it inspires and what it means to leave it. That is a different kind of speech: more rooted and, more often than not, better.
Some will object that Commencement exists for graduates, not for institutional self-expression, and that students should hear from the most accomplished figures available. It is a fair point. It assumes, though, that a connection to the College and genuine inspiration are somehow at odds. They are not.
The choice this year shows how unnecessary it is for Dartmouth to look elsewhere by default. This is an institution whose alumni ranks include Olympians, senators, members of the House, diplomats, physicians, journalists, artists, scholars, entrepreneurs and public servants. Few colleges have less need to borrow prestige from outside names.
That does not mean outsiders have no place here. Of course, they do. Students should and do hear often from distinguished non-alumni through lectures, institutes, policy forums and special events.
Two years ago, Roger Federer’s commencement speech was widely praised. That success underlies the point: Dartmouth does not lack access to extraordinary voices. The question is not whether the College can attract them. It is whether Commencement is the place they belong. Exceptional outside speakers can rise to the occasion, but they should remain exceptions, not the default.
Great outside voices are often the ideal choice for Class Day or similar occasions, but Commencement is different, as peer schools like Princeton and Yale have long understood, using Class Day to host prominent outside speakers while reserving Commencement as the institution’s formal, self-defining ceremony.
Commencement should more often be the moment when Dartmouth trusts its own graduates to tell its story.
That does not require choosing alumni indiscriminately. Affiliation alone is not merit. The College should seek graduates of distinction and real speaking ability. Some years, extraordinary circumstances may justify an outside speaker, but such cases should be rare.
This year’s selection offers a model worth keeping. Rachel Dratch brings high achievement, warmth, recognizability and, crucially, institutional connection. She reflects what Dartmouth has produced and what Dartmouth should be proud to celebrate.
In a milestone year tied to the women who helped transform the College, Dartmouth chose one of its own. It should do so again next year, and the year after that.
Dartmouth got this one right. Now make it the rule.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
