Alt-Grad 2025 Speaker Announced!
Viet Thanh Nguyen is the keynote speaker for this year’s [NEW] Commencement!
New College students hold “Alt Commencement” for the third year to celebrate their achievements and preserve their dignity, as another controversial speaker invited yet again to speak at the college’s formal graduation ceremony.
On Thursday, May 22, Aerol Arnold Chair of English, and Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, Viet Thanh Nguyen, will deliver the keynote for the Alternative Commencement hosted by New College of Florida graduates. Nguyen won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel, The Sympathizer, which was turned into an HBO limited series, and received fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations. Students chose Nguyen both for the enjoyment of his novels and because his writing explores themes of identity, uncertainty, and navigating political power and propaganda—all of which are familiar themes for this group of graduates.
The past two graduations at New College followed targeting and political overhaul, which has continued. Controversial political figures were invited to speak at both the 2023 and 2024 formal graduation ceremonies at New College. This year, the college’s administration may be pushing the boundaries of controversy even further by inviting Alan Dershowitz to speak. Dershowitz draws in most controversy not solely for his scholarship, but largely due to his roles as a high-profile defense attorney for notorious figures such as Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and Donald Trump.
One graduating student, Beaux Delaune recounted: “When I attended the official graduation in 2023, I left feeling sick to my stomach. In 2024, that feeling did not abate. I’ve been honored to work on alt grad for the chance to do something that makes people feel seen. Students deserve to have such a special day focused on our achievements - not the political whirlwind we have suffered.”
Graduating students’ reasons for holding this event again this year range from a celebration of individuality to a sense of nostalgia for the beginning of their collegiate journey when they felt valued and supported by the college. Isabel Reyes shared: “Alt grad creates a space for me and other graduating students to experience the New College that we knew and loved when we first began our journey here.” Hannah Barker noted similarly, “This event reestablishes our graduation into a celebration of academic individuality rather than conformity. It’s an empowering way to commemorate my achievements in a way that reflects who I truly am.”
The 2025 graduating class may be the last at New College with a higher percentage of graduates from the “original” ethos of the college, pre-takeover. Nisreen Kalai noted the bittersweet reality of this celebration: “We refuse to let the destruction of our community be painted over or hidden behind shiny new surfaces. Alt Grad insists on remembering, on resisting, on celebrating the full, complicated, beautiful truth of who we are and who we refuse to stop being.”
Graduating students are planning this event in coordination with the Novo Collegian Alliance, a nonprofit organization which helps to manage a Student Activity and Advocacy Fund, controlled by New College students, to address a deficit of financial support for academic and extracurricular projects and programs.