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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke at Syracuse University’s commencement ceremony for the Class of 2020 on Sunday.

An SU News release on Friday announced Hochul, who graduated from SU in 1980, as the commencement speaker. On Sunday, she addressed the Class of 2020 a year and four months after the original commencement date, which was postponed due to the pandemic. 

Hochul became New York’s 57th governor in August after Andrew Cuomo stepped down from his position.

Hochul said the events of 16 months ago, when the pandemic got in the way of graduates’ plans to celebrate their careers and launch into the world, gave recent SU alumni the ability to adapt in a world that’s always changing. 

“Yes, you’ve heard the words endurance and perseverance, and today they may just be words. But they’re part of your soul now,” she said.

Hochul said her time at SU had a “profound influence” on both her rise to the position of governor and the person she became on that journey.

As a high school senior, Hochul toured college campuses all across New York state with her father. She remembered what her father said to her after they visited the Maxwell School of Public Affairs and Citizenship.

“‘Some of those other schools we went to, they’ll probably teach you a lot. That’s probably where the wife of a Congressperson would go. You go to Syracuse, you could be a Congressperson,’” Hochul said.

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In 2011, Hochul won a seat in Congress for New York’s 26th district.

SU sparked a passion for activism within Hochul, she said. When she arrived on campus, Hochul said she took her time at SU as an opportunity to reinvent herself. She ran for what is today the Student Association, becoming the student representative to the Board of Trustees. While Hochul said she had no courage coming in as a student, she had to build her leadership skills along the way.

One of Hochul’s first initiatives as a student leader revolved around the project to build what is now called the Carrier Dome. Hochul thought the Dome should be named after Ernie Davis, a Heisman Trophy winner and celebrated athlete at SU, and fought to build support behind the idea.

Although her efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, it taught her a valuable lesson.

“Never underestimate your ability to make a difference,” Hochul told the graduates. “You don’t know until you try.”

Although the Ernie Davis campaign wasn’t as successful as Hochul might have hoped, she did have some successes as a student activist that gave her the seeds for her career in public service.

Hochul helped to organize a six-month-long strike of SU’s bookstore to protest high prices, she said. Eventually, the bookstore lowered the prices. She also launched the effort for a student union so that people on campus could have an area to collectively gather.

“By bringing people together, we could create a voice, create momentum, building collaboration and consensus. We got things done,” Hochul said.

Hochul said she was most proud of her response to the apartheid crisis in South Africa, which was one of the driving racial and social justice issues of her time as a student. She told the Board of Trustees to stop being complicit in the situation by having investments in companies doing business in South Africa, and they actually took action to divest these holdings, Hochul said.

“Sometimes you feel morally compelled to speak up, even on issues that don’t touch your life directly. You have to call out injustice where you see injustice,” she said. 

Hochul ended her speech by recognizing Kevin Richardson, who received an honorary degree as part of the ceremony. Richardson was wrongly convicted as part of the “Exonerated Five” in 1989 and now serves as a motivational speaker on the flaws of the legal system.

“When you face a challenge, you feel discouraged, you feel hopeless, I want you to think of Kevin Richardson,” Hochul told the graduates. “Know what this person endured.”

Hochul encouraged the Class of 2020 to accept invitations to reunions in the future to share the stories of their lives and how they “made a difference”.

“For many of you, the word orange means more than a color or a fruit,” she said. “And that’s something that’s going to bind you together forever.”

Published on September 20, 2021 at 12:19 am

Contact Richard: rcperrin@syr.edu | @richardperrins2