Joining the nearly 1,300 members of the class of 2002, Brandeis's class of 1952 celebrated 50 years gone by and remembered their own studies at Brandeis. "Standing at this podium, I can't help but feel this overwhelming sense of pride," senior speaker Nakisha Evans '02 said. "We are from two distinct points in Brandeis's history, but collectively we are an equal representation of the triumphant journey of Brandeis's commitment to truth and knowledge, academic excellence, social justice and exclusivity."

With roughly 100 members, the class of 1952, Brandeis's first class, came to share in the festivities of this, Brandeis's 51st commencement exercises. Dozens of '52 alumni walked with this year's graduates.

Eli Factor '52 remembered the University's beginnings. "Local Jewish institutions did a fine public relations job and projected Brandeis to be a great school," Factor said. "This attracted the children of immigrant Jewish families to apply, even though it was a new university with no reputation at all."

Sunday was the fifth time Factor marched in ceremonies. "By the time I graduated in 1952, we had marched four times because they held ceremonies at the end of the year even though there were no graduating seniors," Factor said. "Eleanor Roosevelt was my graduation speaker. The student body president gave a very pessimistic speech about the Cold War, and Eleanor Roosevelt decided at the last minutes to improvise her speech to give students a more optimistic look."

Rhoda Lemelmann Factor '53 was the first Near Eastern and Judaic Studies major to graduate from Brandeis. "Eli and I met when I was registering for classes," Factor said. "I was a freshman, and he was a sophomore. We got married two weeks after my graduation in 1953." The couple's daughter graduated from Brandeis in 1991.

Eight hundred fifteen bachelor degrees, 371 master's degrees and 102 doctorates were awarded. One hundred seventy undergraduates received the honor of cum laude; One hundred eleven were awarded magna cum laude and 30 received summa cum laude.

Evans began her speech with humor. "I know my class, and the last time we collectively got up at 10 a.m. on Sunday was during Orientation," Evans said. "We were excited, we were freshman, and we didn't know better."

"(Evans) is a wonderful example of a student who came here as a TYP (Transfer Year Program) student, and has done very well in her studies, has made major contributions to the University through her activism on the campus," President Jehuda Reinharz said.

Fear and the courage to overcome anxiety were emphatically thematic to her address.

Evans emphasized a need to better society. "To do that, we must reach within ourselves, to that dark place and confront the fears that hide amongst us — the fears that prevent us from making this world a better place ... whether by circumstance, whether by culture, whether by experience," Evans said. "But, we must reach within ourselves and recognize those fears. We must pull them out. We must look at them. And, most importantly, we must name them, because by verbalizing those fears we are making them real, we are making them tangible. And, by doing that we are making them in a way that we can finally do the difficult, yet magnificent, task of coming to terms with them."

"We will see the pain that (our fears) have caused us, and we have caused others because of that."

"It's bittersweet — hard to leave an institution that I love and friends that I love, but the future is exciting," former Union President Joshua Peck '02, said.

David Greven (PhD) '02 spoke on behalf of graduate students. "I was deeply honored to be able to talk about the opportunities I feel Brandeis has given me and other graduate students," Greven said later. "I think graduate programs are a great and noble tradition that should be honored and celebrated, and I think they need to be nourished and supported in order to continue because they are one of the greatest enterprises offered to someone who is a member of the international community."

"This is a great day for Brandeis. I know that all of you share my pleasure and great pride in the achievement of our graduates of this great university," Reinharz said prior to the presentation of the honorary degrees.

The University awarded seven honorary degrees, including commencement speaker Ted Koppel, a Doctorate of Humane Letters. Koppel, the son of German-Jewish refugees, began what is now "Nightline" during the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979. His broadcasting career, however, began in radio in 1963 and Koppel moved to television to cover the war in Vietnam.

"I think that through his keen analysis, through his intelligence, I think his fair-mindedness, (Koppel) represents many of the values of Brandeis," Reinharz said. "Having watched him for many years on 'Nightline' and having seen him cover all areas of the globe, I think that he also represents a global view of the world, which we hope to give students here at Brandeis."

Koppel joked with the audience and advised graduates to look to their elders for knowledge and guidance.

"Several of you are thinking: 'I wonder if that is his real hair,'" Koppel said in his introduction. "Let me assure you that, if I did wear a rug, ABC News pays me enough that I could afford a better looking one than this one."

"We are gathered here this morning to revel in your achievements. That's why these graduation ceremonies tend to be as long as they are," Koppel said. "In truth, you haven't achieved much of anything yet. You've been taking on intellectual fuel for the long journey ahead."

"Indeed, in our frenzied efforts to erase all vestiges of age from our graying hair, from our waistlines, from our sagging bosoms, from under our eyes and chins, we are sending you a confusing signal," he said. "Why would you believe that you have anything to learn from us when we, clearly, are so desperately engaged in trying to be like you?"

I think (Koppel) went out on a limb a little bit with some of his remarks," Ethan Lebowitz '02 said. "In the sort of self-congratulatory nature of the speeches, which you usually see during any sort of college exercise, it's uncommon for someone to say, 'well, you haven't really accomplished anything, but you have a lot to accomplish, and you should look to people who are older than you and sort of emulate them.' So, I think that was going out on a limb but it's something I happen to agree with a lot, so I was impressed."

"I'm speaking at Brandeis because Brandeis was nice enough to invite me to come," Koppel said in an interview. "It's a school I've admired for a long time, and when a school of this caliber offers you an honorary degree and you can get a couple of thousand of people to sit there and listen to what you have to say for 10 or 12 minutes, that's an opportunity not be turned down."

"I think journalism in a democracy is an essential part of social justice, and you can't have one without the other," Koppel said when asked about Brandeis's self-proclaimed purpose of social justice.

Stephen Breyer, associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was among the seven honorary degree recipients. The University awarded Breyer a Doctor of Laws. In an interview with WBRS and the Justice, Breyer was asked how he has looked to the achievements of Justice Louis Brandeis, whose name the University bears.

"Justice Brandeis is my hero. He's my hero because he — and I think Brandeis University stands for that too — has combined a sense of social responsibility and an understanding of individual human problems with tough intellectual rigor, with high academic standards," Breyer said. "He never compromised his academic standards, and by that I mean intellectual honesty. He was very learned in the law and he always had an intuitive sense of compassion for the individual. I think the University maintains that standard."

Professor Emeritus Larry Fuchs (AMST), who has been at Brandeis for 50 years, was also awarded an honorary degree. Fuchs has written eight books and was chosen by President John F. Kennedy as the first director of the Peace Corps in the Philippines.

Other honorary degree recipients were: Father Robert F. Drinan S.J., a Catholic priest and former Congressman; architect Frank Gehry whose recent works include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; philanthropist and environmental activist Richard Goldman; and Yale University biochemist Joan Steitz, whose work, including research of RNA, led her to win Brandeis's Rosenstiel Award.

— Jamie Freed and WBRS contributed to this article.