Mamphela Ramphele Reminds Graduates of the Need to Turn Their "Exceptional Talents, Sensitivities and Energies Outward"

New York, NY, May 22, 2002—Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, activist, educator and managing director of the World Bank, yesterday spoke to a graduating class of 550 women on their responsibilities and opportunities as Barnard graduates and as women. "There is a pressing need," she said, "for you to turn your exceptional talents, sensitivities and energies outward: to the community, the society, and the world at large, and the many problems that deprive billions of your fellow citizens of a secure, dignified and meaningful existence."

Ramphele received the Barnard Medal of Distinction, one of the College’s highest honors, in 1991. She spoke before a crowd packed into all corners of Lehman Lawn and Altschul Plaza for Barnard’s 110th commencement.

She began by remembering the challenges she faced when she graduated 30 years ago from the University of Natal. Pursuing her M.D. as a black woman in apartheid South Africa was practically unheard of at the time. "Yes, that was eons ago, a continent away," she said, "and the challenges I faced in a politically and socially complex South Africa were very different from the challenges you face as you enter the world today. The challenges you are facing are no less real and difficult, however."

Reminding the graduates of the changes that have occurred, not only since they graduated from high school, but of the last few months, Ramphele said, "In today’s world, it is no longer possible to live a life in isolation, detached from the rest of the world." Solving the growing AIDS crisis, world poverty, lack of education, and lack of clean water were issues she cited as ones for which the graduates "have an important role to play."

She also called on the graduates to fight against gender discrimination worldwide: "In no part of the developing world are women equal to men in legal, social, and economic rights. Gender gaps are widespread in access to and control of resources, in economic opportunities, in power, and political voice. Women and girls bear the largest and most direct costs of these inequalities – but the costs cut broadly across society, ultimately harming everyone."

Citing the larger numbers of women who entered medical and law school in the 1980s and ’90s but were less involved in global issues than previous generations, Ramphele told the graduates, "You are different from those who graduated a decade ago. You are the leaders of tomorrow…. But effective leadership doesn’t happen in a vacuum: You need to practice your natural skills in listening and understanding, particularly when you are dealing with people who seem, at first blush, to be different from you."

Ramphele closed with a quote from William James: "The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it."

Also receiving the Barnard Medal of Distinction were:

• Barbara Novak ’50, Barnard Professor Emerita of Art History and one of the most influential theorists of American art;
  
• Alica M. Rivlin, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institute and Henry Cohen Professor of Urban Management and Policy at the Milano Graduate School, New School University, a highly regarded policy maker in Washington;
  
• Harold Varmus, cancer researcher, Nobel Laureate and head of the National Institutes of Health, whose research has led to great strides in the understandings, diagnosis and treatment of a variety of cancers.

In a Barnard Commencement tradition, the Frank Gilbert Bryson Prize was given to the graduate whose classmates voted to have contributed the most to Barnard in her time as a student. This year the prize went to Kathryn Curran. Keeping with tradition, no student knew who would receive the award until the moment President Judith Shapiro announced the name.

Barnard’s ceremony is officially called the Presentation of Degree Candidates. The graduates formally receive their degrees, signed by Barnard President Shapiro and Columbia University President George Rupp, today at the Columbia University Commencement.

Echoing Ramphele, President Shapiro urged the graduates to take a lesson from September 11. "The…attacks," she said, "were an unprecedented wake-up call – demonstrating to us that we are not a privileged island unto ourselves, but part of the world. We have learned that all of us have a vital, life-and-death interest in – and responsibility for – the role our country plays internationally, and in how the United States is perceived in societies and conflicts around the globe."

She praised the graduating class for their learning of the past year, citing the interfaith dinner organized during Ramadan by Columbia/Barnard Hillel and the Muslim Student Organization: "I would like to believe that the students who attended that dinner are viewing the current hostilities from a broader, more critical and informed perspective."

"I have great faith," Shapiro concluded, "in your ability to respond to the challenge our commencement speaker has set for you – not only because of your intellectual abilities and your courage, but because of your values and your moral commitment to a better world for us all."

Provost and Dean of the Faculty Elizabeth Boylan read United States poet laureate Billy Collins’ poem "Metamorphosis" and asked the graduates to remember the changes they went through in their time at Barnard and to consider the changes they will go through in the future. Speaking as a biologist, she reminded them, "Your DNA will still be yours, as will your character and your core values."

Senior class president Rachel Block highlighted some of the changes that occurred over the years – the greenhouse on top of Milbank Hall, the reinstating of the Greek Games – and the traditions that remained, such as the Midnight Breakfast served by administrators during exam week. Calling for her fellow classmates to become the next generation of icons and artists, she said, "When you are accepting your awards, never forget the solidarity exemplified so many times, like the march down Broadway, chanting, ‘Women unite! Take back the night!’"

Lara Goldberg, president of the Student Government Association, told the graduates, "Class of 2002, each and every one of us is going to be a children’s bedtime character at one time or another."

In her Academic Reflections, given by the winner of a speaking competition, Elissa Zellinger spoke of Moby-Dick. Citing a speech by Ishmael in that book in which he claims "in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life," Zellinger encouraged her classmates not to cling to the half-known life. "What is so frightening about the half-known life," she said, "is the fact that it is in fact half-known, but we have been taught here at Barnard that what we do not know does not scare us. The unknown, the infinite, the undefined is where woman thrives."

"I challenge you to leave your situation if you see there is a limit, a glass ceiling," she said to those graduates with immediate plans after graduation. And, to those with no immediate plan, she said, "Congratulations. This is truly the best way to have no structure or definition. Use this space to enrich your existence, have the courage to find what you want."

Mamphela A. Ramphele

In the last 30 years, Mamphela Ramphele has worked as a medical doctor, a civil rights leader, a community development worker, an academic researcher, and a university administrator. She began her career as an advocate and activist as a student in South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement during the 1970s. From 1977 to 1984, Ramphele was banished to Lenyenye in the nation’s Northern Province. There, she continued her work with the rural poor and established the Ithuseng Community Health Programme.

In 1984, Ramphele received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Hunter College in New York City, and in May 1991 Tufts University awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Science degree for her devotion to the health and social welfare of the poor in South Africa. She also holds an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Natal in South Africa, where she was elected to the Institute of Medicine.

Ramphele has served as a research fellow at the University of Cape Town and was appointed deputy vice-chancellor in 1991. Five years later, Ramphele became the first black woman to hold the position of vice chancellor at a South African university. She has chaired the Board of Trustees of the Independent Development Trust, the largest development capacity-building NGO in South Africa, and the Advisory Board of the World Bank’s Economic Development Institute. Ramphele holds a medical degree from the University of Natal, a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town, a B.Com. in Administration from the University of South Africa, and diplomas in Tropical Health and Hygiene and Public Health from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

In May 2000, Ramphele was appointed managing director of the World Bank where she is responsible for managing the institution’s human development activities with regard to education, health, nutrition, population and social protection. Among the World Bank’s most recent human development policy reforms is the decision to evaluate all its projects for their impact on gender equality and their effects on women and girls worldwide. Ramphele is the author and editor of several books including: Mamphela Ramphele - A Life, her autobiography; A Bed Called Home on life in the migrant labor hostels in Cape Town, and Restoring the Land on ecological challenges facing post-apartheid South Africa.

Barbara Novak ’50

Presenting the Barnard Medal of Distinction to Barbara Novak ’50, Barnard Trustees Karen Fleiss ’68 told her, "Your College has been graced by your presence, as your students have been instructed by your profound knowledge and inspired by your luminous example."

Novak was the Helen Goodhart Altschul Professor from 1984 until her retirement in 1998. The recipient of numerous national book awards, she earned both an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Radcliffe College.

In addition to her work in academia, Novak is also the author of several books. Her first work, American Painting of the 19th Century, branded her as a serious scholar who possessed integrity and insight in her examination of American art. Novak’s second book, Nature and Culture: American Landscape Painting, 1925-75, was described as "the most important contribution to the understanding of 19th century American art that has been written in our generation" by John I.H. Baur of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

She received the Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award from the College Art Association in 1998. In describing her contribution, the association called her "a spirited and inspired scholar with two ground-breaking studies…[who] helped to infuse the study of American art with new life and new academic rigor and respectability."

Widely recognized as one of the most influential theorists of American art, Novak has also received the Woman of Achievement Award from the Barnard Alumnae Association in 1985. Novak served on the Advisory Council of the Archives of American Art and the Editorial Boards of American Art Journal and College Art Journal. She has also been Commissioner of the National Portrait Gallery and a Fellow at the Society of American Historians.

Alice M. Rivlin

David Weiman, chair of the economics department, presented the Barnard Medal of Distinction to Alice Rivlin, saying, "You are as much at home in the stratosphere of economic conceptualization as you are in the down-to-earth realms of public budgeting and urban planning."

One of the most influential policy makers in Washington, Rivlin is renowned as a visionary thinker with a keen eye on the changing state of the national economy. As Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institute, Rivlin tracks the effects of rapid technological change and the movement toward globalization. She is also currently Henry Cohen Professor of Urban Management and Policy at the Milano Graduate School, New School University. A graduate of Bryn Mawr and Radcliffe Colleges, Rivlin is an expert in the fields of fiscal and monetary policy, social policy, and urban issues.

Before returning to Brookings, Rivlin served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board 1996-1999. Her other positions and awards include: Chair, District of Columbia Financial Management Assistance Authority; President, American Economic Association; Founding Director, Congressional Budget Office (1975-83); Director, White House Office of Management and Budget (1994-1996); recipient, MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship (1983).

Rivlin is a frequent contributor to newspapers, magazines, and journals, and has written numerous books. Her latest work, Reviving the American Dream, has been called an "important book, one likely to draw extensive attention from American policy experts as well as a wider public," by Political Science Quarterly.

Harold Varmus

In presenting the Barnard Medal of Distinction to Harold Varmus, Yana Pikman ’02, summa cum laude, told him, "You are a shining example of why colleges of arts and sciences exist and why students choose to attend them."

Varmus earned degrees in English literature from Amherst and Harvard, then went on to Columbia’s School of Physicians and Surgeons. He began his career as a surgeon in the U.S. Public Health Service before moving to San Francisco, where he joined the University of California Medical Center. It was at UCSF that he met Michael Bishop. Their partnership and subsequent research into cancer genes would change the course of cancer research.

Varmus and Bishop’s research has led to great strides in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of a variety of cancers. The men were celebrated by the Nobel committee in 1989 for their work.

Varmus later became the first Nobel Laureate to be appointed head of the National Institutes of Health. He became responsible for managing the largest medical research entity in the world and controlled an annual budget of $11 billion. He also created new training programs for clinical researchers and recruited to the agency top scientists from universities and medical schools across the country.

"He re-energized and revitalized the N.I.H. with his vision and creative leadership in a way that has had a tremendous impact on the entire scientific community," said Philip R. Lee, who served as the Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services 1993-1997.

In addition to authoring over 300 scientific papers and four books, Varmus has been an advisor to the federal government, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, and many academic institutions. Currently, Varmus is the President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and serves on the World Health Organization’s Commission on Macroeconomics and Health.

Barnard College, founded in 1889, is a highly selective independent college for women affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. Barnard, whose mission is to support the talent, vision, and spirit of all women throughout their academic, social, and professional lives, has a long-standing tradition of graduating women who become leaders in business, medicine, government, science, education, public service and the arts.

[Click here for coverage of the Barnard and Columbia graduations in The New York Times.]

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Contact: Petra Tuomi, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907
James Griffith, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7583
Photos by Joe Pineiro and Ruth Thomas