Hillsdale College Hosts 171st Annual Commencement Ceremony, Welcomes Keynote Speaker Bishop Robert Barron
The annual ceremony recognized top academic graduates, outstanding seniors, Professor of the Year Collin Barnes
HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College celebrated its 171st Commencement on Saturday, May 13. The college has held this ceremony annually since 1860. Robert Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester and founder of Word on Fire, delivered the keynote address, and the college conferred honorary degrees and recognized top academic graduates.
Larry P. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, thanked faculty, administration, parents, and friends of the college for making the ceremony possible. He encouraged the graduating class to live out the things they learned while at Hillsdale.
“Today we celebrate an achievement that has been going on in the western world about as long as the writ runs. Three-hundred-and-sixty-five members of the graduating classes,” said Arnn, “are completing one of the biggest tasks of their lives. They are not doing that alone. It is a large, venerable, complex, continuous organization — running back now close to 180 years — that has surrounded them and welcomed them and worked with them, and today they represent the achievement of us all.”
Dr. Arnn then introduced Bishop Barron, who addressed the senior class and encouraged them to consider not just what they do, but what type of person they ought to be.
“The question is not what we are to do, as important as that is, but rather what kind of person we ought to be. Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness, or do we seek our own advantage? In a way, and I’ll say it especially to the graduates, there is no question in the moral and spiritual order more fundamental than that,” said Barron.
“I have the confident hope, graduates, that your years at Hillsdale College have prepared you above all to shape your characters to become the kind of persons who would endure justice rather than commit injustice, who would never dream of worshipping at the altar of an idol, and who wouldn’t surrender the integrity of your souls for the whole world.”
Three-hundred-and-forty-three undergraduates from the Class of 2023 received their degrees. Twenty-two graduate students received their degrees. Dr. Arnn recognized the 2023 Professor of the Year — Collin Barnes of the psychology department — as well as this year’s top academic graduates and outstanding seniors.
To view photos of the event, click here. For a photo of Bishop Barron, click here.
For a high-resolution copy of the Hillsdale College clocktower logo, click here.
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