Wesleyan Celebrates R&C 2022

After two years of scaled-back celebrations, Wesleyan proudly returned to full in-person Reunion & Commencement festivities May 19–22, 2022. From the traditional champagne reception bringing together graduating seniors, families, friends, and alumni, to the Alumni Assembly honoring alumni volunteers and esteemed classmates, it was a heartwarming weekend of reuniting with old friends and making new ones. Highlights included a screening of tick, tick…BOOM! and talkback with director Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, Hon. ’15, as well as the portrait unveiling of former Wesleyan President Douglas Bennet ’59, Hon. ’94, P’87, ’94.

During the 190th Commencement Ceremony, Wesleyan conferred more than 800 bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees and awarded three honorary degrees to Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who delivered the Commencement address; Joseph J. Fins ’82, physician, professor, and renowned medical ethicist; and Gloria Steinem, award-winning journalist and political activist.

Their speeches, along with that of President Michael Roth ’78 and senior class speaker Kalli Jackson ’22, spoke of the divisiveness of the current cultural climate and encouraged the graduates to use the skills they learned and the empathy they exhibited during the pandemic, to “make new connections” and to “challenge the artificial boundaries that have divided us in the past.”

See more coverage of Wesleyan’s 190th Commencement
See more coverage of Wesleyan’s 2022 Reunion Activities