Holy Cross will award four honorary degrees at this year’s graduation ceremony in May. The recipients, announced by Father Boroughs in an April 1st email, are Dr. Michael Collins ‘77, chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School; Reverend David Beckmann, an anti-hunger activist; Sister Donna Markham, president of Catholic Charities USA; and Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, current U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will deliver the commencement speech, while Dr. Collins will offer a reflection to the graduating class. Rev. Beckmann and Sister Markham will speak at a special virtual convocation on May 22nd, the day after commencement.
While outdoing last year’s surprise commencement appearance by Dr. Anthony Fauci would be a difficult task, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield is an impressive pick in her own right. A career diplomat, she has served in U.S. missions in Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica, as well as several tours in Washington, DC. After an ambassadorship to Liberia between 2008 and 2012, she served as Director General of the Foreign Service between 2012 and 2013 and as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 2013 to 2017, before retiring after thirty-five years at the State Department. Her devotion to public service provides much for Holy Cross students to appreciate and emulate.
Unfortunately, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s shameful recent comments cast a negative light on her previously apolitical reputation. Speaking last week before Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (itself a problem, given Sharpton’s history of racism and anti-Semitism), Thomas-Greenfield recounted her personal experiences with racial discrimination, before stating, “I have seen for myself how the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles.” She went on to judge racism as “a problem in every society,” citing as examples the ongoing genocides against the Rohingya in Burma and Uyghurs in China. Beyond the obvious issue of equivalating—even indirectly—the United States with the murderous, authoritarian regimes in China and Burma, Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks raise serious concerns regarding her role as US ambassador to the UN. As the Wall Street Journal editorial board rightly noted, her role as UN ambassador is to “speak for American values and interests” on the world stage. Instead, she has chosen to revive a version of President Obama’s apology tour and use her platform to self-flagellate and denigrate the country she is supposed to represent and defend.
Thomas-Greenfield is just the latest in the College’s recent tradition of inviting progressive political and media figures to speak or receive honorary degrees. Recent commencement speakers who fit this mold have included Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, Democratic state representative Mark Kennedy Shriver, NPR host Michele Norris, racial activist Bryan Stevenson, and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. To be fair, while several of these—including Favreau, Casey, Matthews, and Shriver—are alumni, the fact remains that Holy Cross has frequently drawn commencement speakers from the left, but rarely from the right. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the College’s most famous alumnus (the recent Fauci fad aside), has received an honorary degree from his alma mater, but never spoken at commencement. If the Holy Cross administration is unwilling to host commencement speakers from all ideological backgrounds, it would be best to avoid inviting political figures at all.
Before her recent comments, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield was fairly nonpartisan, with only a controversy or two under her belt. During her confirmation hearing, she was criticized by some Republicans for a 2019 speech delivered at a Communist Party of China-sponsored Confucius Institute in which she praised China’s Belt and Road Initiative. She described the speech as a “mistake” at her Senate hearing, and was ultimately confirmed in a bipartisan 78-20 vote. She later denounced China’s treatment of its Uighur population as a “genocide” in a speech before the UN General Assembly—a promising sign that she will continue to stand up for human rights in spite of Chinese pressure.
Another concern was her pledge during her testimony that a “personal priority” would be to protect women’s access to “a full range of reproductive health services,” which, as a Heritage Foundation article noted, in the UN context, includes abortion. As an invited speaker to a Catholic college, this is obviously problematic. However, as noted by Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, it is acceptable for a non-Catholic with personal disagreements with Church teaching to deliver a speech at a Catholic college in most circumstances. An issue only arises when the speaker in question has been “publicly and… stridently in opposition to clear, fundamental Catholic teaching.” With this in mind, it is important to note that the vast majority of Thomas-Greenfield’s career was spent within the Foreign Service, serving in a nonpartisan capacity under presidents of both parties, as a member of the State Department bureaucracy. So while some of her views might not align with those of the Church, there is no reason for this to overshadow her merit as a leader in other areas, particularly in advancing democracy overseas.
Recent controversies aside, her life story actually holds a lot for conservatives to appreciate. A descendant of slaves, she was born and raised in a small town in Louisiana, where she grew up attending segregated schools and witnessing Ku Klux Klan cross burnings in her neighborhood. As she later testified before the UN General Assembly on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, “I know the ugly face of racism. I lived racism. I have experienced racism. And I survived racism.” She not only survived—she thrived.
After graduating in 1970 from a (still) all-black high school, she opted not to attend the local historically black college like many of her other classmates. Instead, she set her sights on Louisiana State University—which she was only able to attend “as a consequence of a lawsuit.” There, despite unsympathetic white professors, she was able to graduate and went on to earn her master’s in public administration from the University of Wisconsin. She later began a PhD program before leaving to enter the Foreign Service in 1982.
That a black American from the Deep South who grew up under segregation and amid Klan violence could go on to become one of the country’s top foreign policy leaders is a remarkable achievement in itself. Even more remarkable is that she was able to accomplish this without the interference of affirmative action programs or institutional “anti-racism” efforts. Hers is a story of pure grit and determination. As Thomas-Greenfield put it in her confirmation hearing, “To me, that represents the progress, and promise, of America” (too bad her recent comments have undermined this message). In an age where universities—Holy Cross included—increasingly prioritize “protecting” students and validating their fragility rather than teaching them resilience, Thomas-Greenfield’s story is an invaluable one.
The other invitees to this year’s ceremonies, while less prominent, are similarly impressive figures in their respective fields. Dr. Michael Collins ‘77 is chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and senior vice president for health sciences for the university as a whole. Before starting at UMass, he headed the Archdiocese of Boston-sponsored Caritas Christi Health Care system for ten years between 1994 and 2004. He has served as chair of the board of both the College of the Holy Cross and the Catholic Health Association of the United States. Most recently, he oversaw the creation of the UMass Medical School Vaccine Corps, which recruited over 6,400 volunteers to distribute COVID-19 vaccines throughout the state. Collins’ career exhibits not only a clear dedication to public service, but fidelity to the Church’s mission in healthcare. Deserving in his own right, he is an even more welcome choice when considering Holy Cross’s past decisions to honor pro-abortion speakers like MSNBC host Chris Matthews.
The Rev. David Beckmann and Sister Donna Markham are similarly respectable choices. Beckmann, as president of Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger advocacy organization, led campaigns to reduce hunger in the United States and abroad. A former World Bank economist, he currently serves on the steering committee of the Circle of Protection, an interdenominational Christian anti-hunger advocacy network. He was awarded the World Food Prize in 2010. Sister Donna Markham is president of Catholic Charities USA. She previously taught at St. John’s Seminary in Michigan and at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A Dominican sister and clinical psychologist, she is Catholic Charities’ first female president in its 110-year history. It will be refreshing to hear the perspectives of these two servant-leaders whose work is grounded in faith and moral principles, rather than the narcissistic progressive orthodoxies that often seem to define conversations surrounding social justice at Holy Cross.
As alumni well know, Holy Cross has a mixed track record when it comes to honorary degrees—and preserving the College’s Catholic, Jesuit tradition more broadly. This year’s invitees are (mostly) a welcome breath of fresh air. While the Holy Cross administration consistently eschews tradition and the liberal ethos in favor of divisive political agendas, the Class of 2021 will at least get to hear from some sources of true inspiration at this year’s commencement and convocation ceremonies: Dr. Collin’s story of leadership and Catholic medical ethics; and Rev. Beckmann and Sister Markham’s spirit of faith-inspired activism and service. Hopefully Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will strike a similar note in her commencement address, and draw on her impressive story to offer a message of resilience, patriotism, and public service—rather than use the opportunity to once again pick at America’s racial scabs.