With tassels dangling, college graduates cheered the politicians, musicians, CEOs, ballerinas and scientists who shared jokes and wisdom at graduation ceremonies this spring. They also protested, booed and caused some speakers to avoid the stage altogether.
Economic uncertainty and political divisions have been shaking up college commencements for years. Protests have become so common that some colleges prerecorded speeches and streamed them to graduation ceremonies rather than risk disruption. But for the class of 2026, the arrival of artificial intelligence and a tough job market, along with cultural conflicts and angry politics, have culminated in a particularly scary moment to head off into the world.
The New York Times studied dozens of commencement addresses to find common themes, including advice, viral moments and jokes meant to lighten the anxiety many graduates are feeling. Here are some of the highlights:
Advice for the “So-called Anxious Generation”
At Yale University, Min Jin Lee, an author and journalist, read a staggering list of issues facing young people today during the university’s Class Day speech, including rising prices, climate change, war and diseases.
“You are the so-called anxious generation,” she said. “To me, you are rightfully aggrieved.”
Some commencement speakers took a tough love approach. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist who named the “anxious generation” in his book about young people and mental health, spoke at New York University.
Student government leaders had written a letter to university officials protesting the choice of Mr. Haidt because of his criticisms of “cancel culture,” which they said was “unsettling.” In his speech, he suggested students should question notions of their own vulnerability. “Antifragile things grow stronger, so we need to expose them to challenges, diligently,” Haidt said.
Arthur C. Brooks, an author and a professor at Harvard, told Vanderbilt students that his great-grandfather “never came home and said to his wife, ‘Honey, I had a panic attack behind the mule today.’” Mr. Brooks encouraged students to put down their phones and embrace boredom.
But Ms. Lee, speaking to Yale students, had comforting words for students after listing the challenges they face, suggesting time would provide perspective.
“You will see straight through the fog of confusion, the fear mongering, and the anxiety provoking chaos,” she said.
“Be Delusional”
That’s what Queen Latifah told graduates at North Carolina A&T as they consider their path.
She told a story of riding two buses and two trains as a teenager to watch live music in New York, with just $1.50 for pizza. “It takes the right kind of delusion to think you can do what you think you can do,” she said.
Both Hugh Jackman, at Ball State University, and Harrison Ford, at Arizona State University, told graduates they had little idea of what to do with their lives, until they stumbled into theater classes senior year hoping for a grade boost. And that was OK.
Mr. Jackman told Ball State students they should trust their intuition and “the tingle” when they make life decisions.
John Green, the young adult novelist, took a different approach at Rice University, where he said the real work of adulthood is to balance failure and suffering with the search for progress and hope, “to grapple with reality in all its glory and heartbreak and to push the human story forward.”
“A.I. is not going to replace you.”
Magic Johnson, the former basketball player, pushed Tuskegee University graduates in Alabama to try out new technology, rather than be afraid of it.
“Sometimes we have to be uncomfortable to get comfortable,” he said.
While A.I. might not replace you, he added, “somebody who knows A.I. will replace you at your jobs.”
Students listened quietly, but elsewhere, talk of A.I. met with boos. Gloria Caulfield, a real estate executive, was interrupted at the University of Central Florida mid-speech after comparing A.I. to the Industrial Revolution. “OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?”
University of Arizona graduation attendees also booed the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as he spoke of the potential impact of A.I. on daily life, saying, A.I. will “touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have.”
And students at Marquette University expressed frustration through petitions and opinion articles leading up to the commencement speech of Chris Duffey, an A.I. executive at Adobe.
“Hard Won” Freedoms
Perhaps inevitably, the nation’s current political fights came up in speeches.
The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, called Howard University’s graduating class the “wedge between democracy and autocracy,” and made pointed references to President Trump and his administration’s push to increase control of the city’s police.
Nancy Pelosi’s message to Notre Dame de Namur University graduates declared “hope is not just a virtue. Hope demands a plan.” Pelosi encouraged graduates of the California school to use “hope” to combat issues like climate change and economic inequality.
Erika Kirk spoke at Hillsdale College in Michigan, where she reflected on the political career of her husband, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last year. Ms. Kirk leaned on her Christian values and encouraged graduates to marry young and have children, and to embrace traditional roles of men as leaders and providers and women as nurturers.
Derek Peterson, a history professor at the University of Michigan, recalled a history of resistance in Ann Arbor. “The freedoms that we all enjoy were hard won,” he said. He praised student activists involved in civil rights and pro-Palestinian protests.
The university’s interim president, Domenico Grasso, later apologized for any pain the speech caused to people who disagreed with it in a public statement to community members.
And at New York University and the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan, some speakers beamed in remotely this year.
In a few cases, political conflicts meant speakers did not appear at all.
Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who had been invited to speak at South Carolina State University and Rami Elghandour, CEO of Arcellx, who was invited to Rutgers University, never stepped onstage because of public backlash.
In Ms. Evette’s case, students at the historically Black school protested and signed petitions over her prior proposals to build ICE detention centers and her defense of President Trump’s social media postings. Rutgers University rescinded Mr. Elghandour’s invitation to speak after students expressed concerns about his criticism of Israel on social media.
“Fight to the end”
Several speakers told students not to shy away from battles worth fighting. Tom Brady, the former N.F.L. quarterback, told Georgetown University graduates that when faced with a hard choice, they should “go out there and fight your ass off.”
Sean Evans, host of the popular YouTube talk show “Hot Ones,” made graduates at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chuckle as he described his journey from growing up in a Chicago suburb to interviewing celebrities.
“The Midwest doesn’t hand you confidence; it makes you build it,” he said.
Hilary Duff, the actor, told Northeastern University students to ignore forces telling them they are powerless: “You have the power to make your own choices,” Ms. Duff said.
And Gustavo Dudamel, the conductor and music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, told students at the University of Southern California to focus less on themselves, and to listen to others: “See and uplift human beings who are out there waiting to be heard.”
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