The President, The Press, and We The People
September 20, 2026
[UPDATE: On Monday, September 21, 2026, the three media outlets (CNN, MSNOW, Politico) and their White House correspondents sued President Trump and his aides for violating their First Amendment rights by banning them from the White House. In solidarity, all major television networks refused to provide pool coverage for White House events on Monday, and news photographers from the New York Times and other newspapers also joined in a photo blackout in solidarity with their colleagues. I will provide another update as events unfold this week.]
The current President of the United States has had some unusual ideas about how to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the world’s oldest continuing Democracy. A bloody fight on the White House lawn? Check. A grand prix car race around the U.S. Capitol? Check! An effort to paint the Reflecting Pool “American Flag Blue”? Well, ok, I guess. A triumphal arch hiding snipers and munitions? Really? Whatever.
Abolishing Freedom of the Press? Draw the line and hold it right there! The President reveals his woeful ignorance of American history — and the Constitutional duties of his office — when he now declares that certain news outlets (MSNOW, CNN, Politico) are banned from the White House because he does not like their reporting. The man who swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” that includes First Amendment Freedom of the Press actually said in an interview, ““There’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories.”
What??? Honest to goodness, that’s actually what’s right about this country! Freedom of the Press — and its close sibling, Freedom of Speech — means that reporters and everyday citizens are free to express themselves in whatever way they wish, positive or negative, and our government may not intervene to repress, constrain, punish or stop the speech or reporting. The First Amendment is really quite simple: reporting and speech in the United States is free, open and not subject to government censorship or restraint.
Above all else, the First Amendment freedoms are what we should be celebrating in this year of America250 because those freedoms of speech and expression gave life to our nation and have supported this experiment in freedom for two and one-half centuries. First Amendment freedoms are the bedrock of our way of life. For any president to attempt to put an end to those freedoms is an offense against not only the media outlets, but an offense against all citizens, We the People — WE are the beneficiaries of the careful stewardship of free speech and press. WE are responsible to sustain those freedoms for future generations.
Presidents since George Washington have complained about negative press coverage; it goes with the territory. Democrats and Republicans alike have complained, confronted, decried and bashed the news media. Leadership in a free country means accepting a large dose of criticism, questioning, skepticism, and yes, at times, even unfair or biased reporting that distorts reality. The solution is not to ban reporters but to provide the facts as clearly and consistently as possible. Presidents have big bully pulpits, they can answer charges and correct the record as often as they wish. What they cannot do is trample on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The President’s churlish fit of pique against select news outlets occurred, ironically, one day after Constitution Day on which Trinity faculty and students gathered to consider the very issues now crowding the front pages. Dean Tom Mostowy gave a great overview of the creation of the Constitution, and then Newsroom Director Chaz Muth and journalists with the Trinity Times discussed the history and current state of press freedom (slide from Mr. Muth’s presentation on the right, and photo by Phil Reese below; see full slide decks from the 9/17 program on the website).
Following the program, several of the student journalists asked me for my thoughts on why press freedom is important — and of course I had to underscore the fundamental importance of a free press to sustaining all of our rights and privileges in a free society. Then they asked me what I thought about student press, and my answer is the same: student press and media are extremely important to the life and health of our campus community, and student journalism is vitally necessary to sustain an open, honest university. I am so proud of the Trinity Times and the work of our student journalists!
I noted that I was a student journalist for the Trinity Times “back in the day” and I learned the ropes of both journalism and the politics that naturally accompany good reporting. I didn’t mention this story in the interview, but I remembered it later on: one day when I was a student editor, the Trinity Times published something critical of the student government. The President of the Student Government stopped me on the hallway to complain bitterly and loudly, about the Trinity Times, “I love you most of the time, but sometimes you piss me off.” [direct quote, sorry for the slang…] That stung, but we didn’t change our story. Then, a year later, when I became the Student Government President, the roles were suddenly reversed, and I learned what it felt like to be the object of constant press criticism. Ugh. Not fun. But I learned to accept it as part of leadership.
Later on, as President of the University, I’ve had to deal with all kinds of media and, often, criticism and negativity. As a leader, I know that coping well with criticism — and, at times, even news stories I think are unfair — is part of my responsibility. If a reporter really gets facts wrong, I might call the reporter to discuss it, or even write a letter to the editor or op-ed. That’s how we do it in a free society.
What no leader can do — whether a Student Government President or University President or President of the United States — no leader can demand that the press stop doing their job, that only positive stories may be published, that journalists are banned from the premises for doing their job —- which is a job they do so that We, the People, can stay informed.
A President cannot be a “snowflake” melting into a puddle of tears and complaints when the news is negative. The strength of a leader is most obvious in the hard times, the trying moments, the times when learning from criticism and moving on reveals the qualities of the leader.
Most of all, a President of the United states must uphold and cherish the Constitution and Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment. In the current case involving CNN, MSNOW and Politico, lawsuits will surely come and courts will most likely rule against the President’s actions. But frankly, it should never get that far. He should rescind his ban on the reporters and grow up, take the criticism and move on. THAT would be truly presidential.
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September 11 – Voices of Trinity Echo Across 25 Years
September 10, 2026
(Collage of some of the Trinity messages and memories from September 2001)
I have written extensively about the events, meaning and impact of that terrible day — September 11, 2001. Just last week, I happened to come across my files from that time, and rather than opining once more on the memories and meaning of that tragedy, on this 25th Anniversary I want to share some of the messages I received at that time from alumnae and colleagues across the nation and around the world. The tapestry of these messages speaks to the hope and resilience of our great Trinity community, and some of the messages seem quite prescient in their comments on the evils spawned by that act of terrorism.
Before sharing some of those comments, I also want to lift up in memory and prayer those members of our large Trinity family who perished that day, including:
Ted Brennan, son of Gail Gallagher Brennan ’58
Sarah Clark, teacher at Backus Middle School and member of Trinity’s ETLI program
Jeffrey LeVeen, husband of Christine Friedmann LeVeen ’69
Laura Longing, niece of Nancy Phelan Wallace ’60
John Thomas McErlean, son of Agnes Inglesby McErlean ’56
Theresa Caggiano Nelson, niece of Joan Formato Ferrante ’63
Frank Skidmore, cousin of Sr. Mary Hayes, SND, ’57
Gregory James Trost, son of Marie Tinsley Trost ’61
May the blessings of the Trinity continue to give strength, hope and support to their families.
On September 11, 2001, the Trinity community rallied to support each other and those who suffered so much loss in this tragedy. I wrote to our alumnae and friends, and in response, I received dozens of messages of pain, heroism, affirmation and firm resolve to find solutions to the causes of this great tragedy.
Below are excerpts from some of the messages, keeping the authors anonymous save for their class years:
A member of the Class of 1975 wrote:
“I was in Crystal City watching the World Trade Center on television — literally not believing my eyes — when I felt a thump, like a heavy door slamming. It was the Pentagon… Since that terrible day, I have struggled to catch a glimmer of what this will mean to us… I have a horrible feeling that we are embarking on what future generations will study as a 100 Years War… West against East, the Enlightenment against the Dark Ages. No doubt conventional military responses — ground troops and bombings — will wax and wane, but will we have to somehow assimilate to constant danger?…Will we move from inconveniences like getting to the airport three hours early to diminution of our liberties in fundamental ways? We must guard against that at all cost, and as the nation’s attention turns, as it will, to other matters, we must be careful not to confuse dissent with sedition, or to allow unscrupulous partisans to take advantage of the situation to push through a particular agenda.”
A member of the Class of 1983 wrote from the Netherlands:
“As I sit here in the Netherlands on a gloomy day, I can look out my window and see many, many Dutch flags at half mast, put there by our neighbors in solidarity with us Americans and the rest of humankind. … Every time I walk on the school playground, friends and even slight acquaintances from many different parts of the world offer me their deepest sympathy. At first I feel like a fraud, for I haven’t suffered a personal loss, but then, it does feel like a personal loss. I try not to fall apart in the face of their sincerity…. My children’s classmates are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and atheist. They come from every part of the world. My children are lucky to be in this environment, that they can see each classmate for the individual he or she is, not the religion or nationality. I pray that somehow our youngest generations and those to come can learn to see each of God’s children as individuals deserving of our respect, and that they learn tolerance of our differences. The task is the responsibility of each and every one of us. It will not happen if we remain passive, it requires our strongest efforts. It is worthy of our strongest efforts.”
Older alumnae saw parallels with other national tragedies they experienced as Trinity students:
From the Class of 1945:
“My class of ’45 was in DC on December 7, 1941… We went to the Capitol the next day. In 1945 the lights went out throughout the city on the day we took our comprehensive exams… It was, like now, a very trying time for the nation. I am sure we will gain unity and strength from this horrendous act and will, in time, defeat the enemy.”
From the Class of 1948:
“Having been a Trinity student during WWII, I can truly appreciate the students’ efforts and concern for the people of our country.”
From the Class of 1963:
“So many of my thoughts as a resident of New York this past week were of Trinity and being in Social Hall, watching the black and white TV as we watched the Cuban Missile Crisis unfold, seeing the anxiety of some of the students who wept for their Cuban homeland or feared they wouldn’t live beyond the next few days or weeks. I was still in Washington a few years later when President Kennedy was assassinated and saw how grief can seize a community, and yet how that community can come together, dignified by that grief… All of these events changed our lives and the life of our nation, but our spirit carries us on, and living that spirit is the best rebuke to our enemies.”
From the Class of 1966:
“One of the first things I thought of when the news started to come through was how the Class of ’66 was barely into its freshman year when the Cuban missile crisis erupted — and we all wondered whether DC would get attacked. People were calm and reassuring then, and eventually all was well. Let us hope for the same again!”
From the Class of 2002:
“It seems that the entire world is feeling incredibly frightened and vulnerable…Most of my generation never thought anything as horrific as this could happen in our time. We thought it was what our parents and grandparents had to survive, not us…”
Some alumnae and family members witnessed the horror first-hand.
A member of the Class of 1996 wrote:
“The view from my office was a source of great distress yesterday. I am right across he water as many of you know. The towers appear less than one mile away. Seeing the towers on fire, seeing the plane dive itself into the tower and then hearing, feeling, and seeing the first tower fall was so shocking. People were screaming. The first plane crash was easily dismissed and after gawking at the burning we all went back to work until a co-worker started screaming, “there’s another one! There’s another one!” and BOOM! Seeing it out the window was so surreal.”
From the Class of 1991:
“I was in traffic on 395 Tuesday morning when I saw the plane headed for the Pentagon. So many lives lost in Tuesday’s chaos. So many lives yet to be lost. My heart weeps for all of us.”
From the Class of 1960:
“[My classmate] survived the tragedy. She walked out of an adjacent building to a friend’s apartment … her niece was on the 105th floor of one WTC that was hit. Her husband has been looking for her ever since. The family were about to baptize their infant son. Husband cannot speak of his wife in the past tense…”
From the Class of 1955:
“Our son was 70 feet from ground zero… across the side street from the towers…He heard a crash, looked out his open office door and saw two offices down the window smashed and desks, computers, etc. being sucked out the window… something crashed into his window and he dropped the phone, grabbed his briefcase and ran for his life…down 29 flights of stairs… when he got out of the building, debris was flying everywhere, he just kept praying and running for his life…”
From the Class of 1971, whose office was 2 blocks from the World Trade Center:
“It is hard to put into words what we experienced. My husband felt the heat from the second plane hitting the second tower on his face as he looked to see what had happend. When each building collapsed, it let loose a rumbling tidal wave of ash that took the daylight to midnight in moments. The darkness lasted for more than half an hour and was so dense you could not see across the street…. I woke up Wednesday and Thursday with fear in my mouth and wrestled it down each time. I went out with a purpose on Wednesday and that was to go to Mass which helped.”
From the Class of 1967:
“A classmate wrote that even if we were not directly touched, we could not escape what has happened. Sooner or later, it will reach out and latch onto all of us… I am about to become a grandmother again… I listened for a long time last week to the beautiful young woman who is still my baby girls speak of her fears for her soon-to-be-born child. Her sense of safety and security is deeply shaken for herself and her baby.”
At that time Trinity had a partnership with Elderhostel (now called Road Scholar), an organization dedicated to lifelong learning for older adults.
An Elderhostel staff member in New York wrote to me:
“As I write to you, the fires are burning in the Marriott Wall Street hotel… the prime residential location for the South Street Seaport Elderhostel program. I was on the runway at LaGuardia when the Trade Center disaster unfolded and then they evacuated the airport. Coming out of the building I looked up and saw the smoke covering the Manhattan skyline. It is not a sight I will ever forget.”
—–
Not forgetting is essential even 25 years later. The hatred, murderous forces that spawned September 11 are still prevalent around the world, and, sadly, the spirit of vengeance in our nation has served to stoke those fires and inflame those who would do it all again if given the chance. The last 25 years have been a time of pain, anger and backsliding into authoritarianism in the misguided belief that more power in the executive branch can protect us, all evidence to the contrary. If there is to be any relief from the fears that still haunt us, we must demand more rational thinking and behavior from our leaders. More on that in the days ahead.
Some of my blogs about September 11:
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September 4, 2026
In the 1970’s, we Trinity Women were fortunate to be in the second or third wave of a movement for women’s rights and equality not only in the United States but globally. Inheritors of a drive for women’s equality famous for foremothers like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and leaders of the Women’s Suffrage movement, we knew that we still faced considerable odds to advance into positions of power in our society. Women were just about 25% of my class at Georgetown Law in 1974; no woman had yet served on the Supreme Court, women judges were few, and women in law firms rare. Women were even more scarce in medicine and other professions; women were rare in the Senate, House and state legislatures, largely absent from governors’ mansions, and not at all on lists of CEOs for the Fortune 500.
We Trinity Women of the latter quarter of the 20th Century wanted more, and we chose a great women’s college to instill in us the knowledge and abilities we needed to ascend to women’s leadership in a world where we knew we would face rampant sex discrimination. But we needed something or someone else: an inspiring leader, an icon we could admire and even, perhaps, emulate. A number of courageous, determined, brilliant women emerged in the mid-20th Century as leaders of the women’s movement — Shirley Chisolm, Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug —and perhaps the most famous and prominent among them was Gloria Steinem, a powerful champion for women’s rights, a master communicator and advocate for equality and justice. Gloria died this week, but her legacy lives strong in the lives of millions of women whose advancement in the workplace, politics and society is due in large part to her lifetime advocacy for women’s rights.
Among many achievements for women, Gloria founded MS Magazine in 1972, a landmark moment in journalism and the literature of women’s rights. Among the many young women attracted to her amazing new magazine was Trinity Alumna Cathie Black, Class of 1966, also emerging as an exemplary leader in her own right in publishing and the news business. Cathie joined MS as an advertising manager, a challenging job since she had to convince the largely-male world of business decision-makers to pay for advertising in this new magazine that was not a typical “women’s magazine” but rather a statement about advocacy for women’s rights and equality.
I asked Cathie to share some of her memories of Gloria Steinem, and she wrote:
“Gloria Steinem was my first role model when I was a young woman in the seventies and on the advertising staff at Ms. Magazine. We would ask Gloria to go on adverting appointments with us in the hope that she would convince the advertisers (then mostly all men) to take a page in the magazine.
“Ms. was a very hard sell but in time her thoughtful presentations broke the ice and we finally started getting advertising.
“Gloria was a warrior who changed the world for the better for men and women.
“I am honored to have known her.”
Cathie Black’s amazing career aptly illustrates the vision and power of Gloria Steinem’s work for women’s equality. After MS Cathie became the publisher of New York Magazine; then on to serve as president and publisher of USA Today and a vice president of the parent company Gannett; later president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America; and then becoming president and later chairman of Hearst Magazines. Like Gloria Steinem, Cathie has always “lifted as she climbed,” inspiring the next generation of women to achieve even more has always been part of her own work. I had the privilege of working with Cathie on Trinity’s Board of Trustees in the late 1980’s when Trinity was struggling in a rapidly changing collegiate world, and her strategic insights and clarity about our mission were instrumental in moving Trinity forward.
Today’s Trinity Women reap many benefits from the persistence and courage of the amazing trailblazers for women’s advancement. In addition to a role model like Cathie Black, we find inspiration and so much affirmation in the iconic leadership of Nancy Pelosi ’62, the first and only woman to be Speaker of the House; Kathleen Sebelius ’70 who was the first woman governor of Kansas and later Secretary of Health and Human Services; and more recent women leaders like Tekedra Mawakana ’93, co-CEO of Waymo; and Beatrice Peterson ’12, award-winning journalist with ABC News, just a few among so many examples of Trinity women’s leadership.
People sometimes ask me why Trinity persists in sustaining our undergraduate women’s college in the modern world where coeducation is the norm throughout higher education. My response is simple: true equality remains elusive for millions of women in America and globally, and those of us who have received so many gifts of education and opportunity have an obligation to make them even more accessible to the rising generations.
We know that the contemporary climate for women’s equality is under a great deal of stress in this era where the political world opposes any mention of programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. We also know that women of color suffer even more discrimination due to race as well as gender, and women of color are now the majority of students at Trinity. Trinity is one of just about 30 remaining women’s colleges that truly believe in the power of education to change the lives of girls and women, and thereby to change the futures and fortunes of their children and families. For 130 years, the achievements of Trinity graduates have proven the truth of Cathie Black’s statement, often echoed by many leaders, that the education of girls and women is the most powerful tool we have to change society for the better.
We remember Gloria Steinem with gratitude and appreciation for the countless doors she opened for all of us. And we salute and thank the Trinity Alumnae who are trailblazers in their own right, women who continue to educate the future generations of women leaders through the power of their example, persistence and courage, and their selfless generosity of to alma mater.
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Welcome, Class of 2030 and All New Students!
August 21, 2026
(New Students Display Trinity Medals After Convocation)
Welcome, Class of 2030 and All New Trinity Students!
Remarks by President Patricia McGuire ’74
at the New Student Convocation
August 21, 2026
Good morning! I am so pleased to welcome you — the Class of 2030 and new students in other classes — to the New Student Convocation for the College of Arts & Sciences, a ceremony marking the end of your orientation period and your official welcome into the Trinity community. During this ceremony, you will sign the Honor Pledge and receive your Trinity medals, special symbols of your new lives as Trinity Women. Congratulations!
We start with the invocation by Dr. Jeannine Marino, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, who will also bless your Trinity Medals:
Gracious God,
We thank you for gathering us here today as we begin a new academic year. We give thanks for the life of each new student and for their loved ones, who have encouraged and journeyed with them along the way. We also give thanks for all the faculty and staff at Trinity, who will guide, encourage, and walk alongside our students throughout their journey here.
Dear God, may your wisdom guide us as we learn from one another, building relationships in which both students and educators are enriched and transformed.
May the knowledge and experiences we gain at Trinity help us discover the deeper purpose of our lives and our careers, always in service to others, especially those most in need.
May your hope fill us with courage, so that we never give up, even when the journey is difficult.
May your love open our hearts to discover the richness and beauty of the diversity among us, helping us to find lifelong friends and a community where we truly belong.
May your joy be with us throughout this journey.
And may all that we learn, all that we become, and all that we do at Trinity contribute to a more just, peaceful, and loving world.
Amen.
…….
And we ask You, O God, to bless these Trinity Medals, symbols of the new students’ entrance into the Trinity community and their commitment to its values.
Amen.
Yesterday, August 20, was the 129th birthday of Trinity, established with articles of incorporation dated August 20, 1897. Intrepid, courageous women — the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur — founded this great college because they believed that women deserved a higher education equal to that of men back in that day. (Trinity Founder Sister Julia McGroarty pictured on the left.) Women were barred from admission to then-new Catholic University. Not everyone was happy about the idea of women going to college back then — some conservative priests at Catholic University wrote to the Pope complaining that the Sisters of Notre Dame who were trying to start Trinity were engaging in heresy — a heresy called “Americanism” because the idea of women’s education was considered very liberal.
The sisters persisted, the students came, and history began to roll forward.
It took three years for Trinity to go from articles of incorporation to actual buildings, faculty and classes. 126 years ago, on a cold, rainy November morning, in the Year 1900, 19 intrepid young women first set foot on Trinity’s campus in what was then considered the “countryside” of the nation’s capital. Michigan Avenue was a dirt road (below), and the college they came to inhabit had one building — or, should I say, a single wing of one building under construction, the south wing of Main Hall (below).
A century and a quarter later, we may look back at the quaint tale of those women (above, Class of 1904) and marvel at their fortitude and determination to make a go of it in a place that must have seemed very strange and foreboding to them. They were pioneers, women destined to change the course of history for the generations who followed them here.
Today, you are the women of destiny, you are the new generation of pioneer women poised to make history yet again.
Who are you? We know some things about you from your class data profile:- 34% aspire to be nurses; others plan to study Business, Criminal Justice, Biology, Psychology, Early Childhood Education and other subjects;
- 83% are U.S. citizen or permanent residents.
- You were born in 24 different countries including, in addition to the United States: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Germany, Jamaica, South Africa, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela, and many others.
- The majority of you are from the District of Columbia and Maryland, with 17 states represented in this class including, among others, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, California, Alabama, Florida, Maine, New York, New Jersey and others.
- You are racially and ethnically diverse, including 46% who identify as Black or African American while 47% identify as Hispanic or Latina.
- You are Baptist and Muslim, Buddhist and Catholic, and many other faiths.
- You are graduates of Coolidge, Columbia Heights/Bell, Cardozo, Roosevelt, Jackson Reed, Don Bosco, Banneker, Eastern and many other high schools.
You are coming to Trinity because you have big dream for yourselves and your families — you know that a great education will make all the difference in helping you to realize your full potential throughout your lives.
Today we welcome you into this grand community and tradition of women scholars arrayed in a long line back to those first 19 students in 1900. They started traditions that continue to this day — traditions like the class colors (The Class of 2030 is a Green Class! So am I!!) and, most important, the Honor System This morning you will take the Honor Pledge and sign the Honor Roll, and then you will receive your Trinity medals.
The Honor Agreement and Medal Ceremony
The Honor Agreement has been our tradition since the founding of Trinity. We expect you to live lives of honor and integrity, and to help each other to do so. This sets Trinity apart from many other schools and many places of business today.
The mission and values of Trinity, as embodied in our Honor System, reject any and all acts and words of hatred against other individuals; we welcome, honor and respect everyone here at Trinity and we expect you to treat every other person you encounter here with the respect and dignity they deserve.
This is the essence of the Honor Code, along with, of course, a deep commitment to being truthful in everything.
As part of this ceremony you will also receive the Trinity Medal, a symbol of your entrance into the Trinity community and commitment to the values of the Honor System.
The Trinity Medal has, on its front, the image of Our Lady – Notre Dame – the patron of the Sisters of Notre Dame who founded Trinity in 1897. On the back is the Celtic triangle symbolizing the Trinity. Your Trinity Medals are symbols — symbols of the power of women to change the world. Wear them well, wear them with pride, never do anything to disgrace them!
To conduct this part of the program, I am pleased to recognize Dean of Students Meechie Bowie will lead you in the Honor Pledge. After you recite the Honor Pledge, Dean Meechie will call you forward to receive your medals and sign the Honor Roll.
“I realize the responsibility involved in membership in the Trinity College community. I agree to abide by the rules and regulations of this community. I also affirm my intention to live according to the standards of honor, to which lying, stealing, and cheating are opposed. I will help others to maintain this responsibility in all matters essential to the common good of the community.”
[The students then came forward one-by-one. Each announced her name with the guidance of Dean Bowie. Next, Provost Carlota Ocampo and Dean Sita Ramamurti handed each student her medal. Then the students signed the Honor Book. Photos below capture the phases of this beautiful traditional ceremony.]
CLOSING REMARKS
As you came forward for this ceremony, I was so impressed by the way each one of you stepped up to the microphone and proudly declared your name. Yes! You are here because you are strong, proud women with big dreams, and you should always be ready to say your name, loud and strong! Congratulations!
As I watched you walk in procession for this ceremony, I also imagined you on the day that you will walk up this aisle in your caps and gowns. What a day that will be! Always remember: graduation is the goal!!
You have received your Trinity medals and signed the Honor Book signifying your commitment to continue in that long line of women reaching back to the start of the last century. Across the last 126 years, thousands of Trinity Women have sat in your places, studied in our classrooms and library, conducted research in our labs and played on our fields and courts. They have formed lasting friendships and cultivated a great love for learning throughout their lives.
You may have heard of some of the famous women who once were Trinity first year students just like you — women like Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi ‘62, or former Chief of Staff to the First Lady Maggie Williams ‘77, or former Kansas Governor and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius ‘70.
You will hear about and even get to know some of our more recent women of achievement — women like Beatrice Peterson ‘12 who was just named as the Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists; or women like Tekedra Mawakana ’93 who is the CEO of Waymo, Google’s self-driving car service; or women like Sydney Cross ’10 whose career in foreign service has taken her from the State Department to the US Transportation Command and soon to the Middle East; or Ewa Obutuse ’20 whose advocacy for Dreamers led to a new Maryland law paving the way for undocumented persons to work in licensed professions.
These are just a handful of the thousands of accomplished women who, like you today, once sat in this chapel on their very first week as Trinity Women, wondering what the future might hold.
Who among you will be cited in the future as exemplars for new generations? Never forget this opportunity and obligation: from your first day at Trinity, you are writing your history for the future to see your example, for other women to take inspiration and determination from what you have been able to do.
You are joining the Trinity community in an historic year, the 250th year of the great American experiment in Democracy. We know that our nation is stressed right now — politically, economically, socially, spiritually. You will be the citizen leaders for your communities, our city and nation well into the latter half of the 21st Century. What will you contribute to the protection of civil rights, the achievement of justice, the relief of poverty, education of children, improvement in healthcare, establishment of peace at home and abroad? Those may seem like lofty, ephemeral goals — but they are goals that we all must work to achieve every single day.
You are joining this academic community on the cusp of an entirely new technological revolution, a brave new world shaped by Artificial Intelligence. We know little about AI except that it has been created and controlled by a few very powerful men — mostly men — and that there are some very good uses for AI, but many pernicious and even evil applications. Whether you choose to work in healthcare or education or business or politics or government, you will have to learn about and develop a healthy philosophy toward the application and management of AI across almost all facets of our lives.
Many of you will be pursuing careers as nurses and healthcare professionals. We need you! Your ability to care for your patients will lean on the very best of your Trinity education. And you will be on the front lines of some of the most contentious issues of our society — the controversy over vaccines, the issue of gender affirming treatments, ongoing questions about reproductive rights, and access to good healthcare for all people regardless of their ability to pay.
The scientists among you will engage the important issues of environmental health and climate change, regardless of what politicians say, the problems are real; the journalists in this class will find yourselves at the center of an increasingly worrisome conflict between wealthy corporate owners of media and the public’s right to know the news unfiltered by political diktats; those who will be teachers face the essential imperative to improve literacy and the ability of students to recognize the difference between real facts and fake news.
In all of this, you will be using the best of your Trinity education to investigate the facts, to engage critical and moral reasoning to solve problems, to write and speak clearly and persuasively, and to exert leadership for progress, for good change, for justice and peace in all of the communities you inhabit. In doing this, you will emulate the Trinity Women who came before you, and blaze trails for those who will follow you. You will prove the wisdom of our founders, the great Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who never met you but who would be so proud of you today.
May the power, wisdom, love and light of the Trinity go with you all through your college days! Congratulations, Class of 2030!
(Below: the images on the Trinity Medal include the Celtic symbol for the Trinity, and on the front, the image of Madonna and Child, taken from the pediment over Notre Dame Chapel, see bottom photo.)
Choosing Public Service
August 11, 2026
(Video screenshot of Dr. Fauci appearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee)
In my senior year at Trinity, in Spring 1974, I attended a gathering of students, scholars and public officials organized by a group known as the Center for the Study of the Presidency. The American presidency was in grave distress at that time due to the Watergate investigation into possible obstruction of justice by President Richard Nixon over the “third rate burglary” of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office building. Nixon was on the verge of impeachment, and numerous officials in his administration were under investigation or about to be indicted for their roles in the Watergate cover-up; some went to jail as a result. The guest speaker at the CSP event was Vice President Gerald Ford, someone who became the second highest public official in the country because his predecessor, Spiro Agnew, had to step down due to a corruption scandal.
Vice President Ford gave a perfectly benign speech about how great the government was and how much the Nixon administration did for our country, and how all of us college students should consider careers in government. He said nothing about the scandals. So, with the brashness of a 21-year-old Trinity senior, when the time came for questions, I raised my hand and he called on me! I stood up and asked the vice president of the United States: with all the scandals in the Nixon administration and the trauma so many members of his administration caused for everyday citizens, how could Mr. Ford encourage any college students to consider pursuing careers in government?
I could hear people gasp, but after looking hard at me for a minute, the vice president replied that it was exactly that kind of boldness that our country needed at that point in time, and he hoped I would take up the challenge. I sat down feeling a bit patronized but glad his answer was friendly. Afterward, the CSP president R. Gordon Hoxie scolded me for my impertinent question — leading me to think I had done the right thing since the question was legitimate and Vice President Ford surely could have given a more satisfying answer.
President Nixon resigned that summer, on August 9, 1974, avoiding an impeachment trial. At that time, many of us college students thought that Nixon and his cronies were the absolute worst examples of corrupt public officials, and many of us wanted nothing to do with service in such a scandal-plagued government.
I thought of that moment last week as I watched the very hostile, disgraceful grilling that Dr. Anthony Fauci received at the hands of Senator Rand Paul and the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. Dr. Fauci had a long and very distinguished career as the head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, and he was the chief medical advisor to both Presidents Trump and Biden during the Covid-19 pandemic. I’m not going to rehash all of the issues with Covid-19, including the vast reservoir of conspiracy theories that continues to fuel right-wing political retribution in some quarters. Suffice to say that, all these years after Covid-19, Senator Paul and others continue to promote the conspiracies and go out of their way to scapegoat former public officials like Dr. Fauci.
At the hearing, Dr. Fauci refused to answer questions, pleading his 5th Amendment rights. He did so in the belief that the questions were hostile efforts to get him to say something that could be used against him. Subsequent to the hearing, Senator Paul and the Republicans on the committee took the unusual step of voting to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress. The result of this effort to shame and malign Dr. Fauci remains unknown at this writing, likely to be tied-up in legal challenges for months to come.
As I watched Senator Paul pursue his malignant crusade against Dr. Fauci, I could feel that 21-year-old college senior rising in me again, wanting to leap up and shout out: “How can you expect anyone to want to go into public service when you treat them so shamefully?” Being older, perhaps wiser, and not having an audience to goad me into shouting a rash question — alone in my office watching the hearing clips on YouTube — I was able to ponder the scene more rationally, and to think past my anger to the real answer.
In fact, as Vice President Ford tried to persuade me so long ago, and as I know for sure today, the miserable examples we see of public corruption and the abuse of power to enact political revenge should light fires in the rising generations to engage, not retreat, from the idea and necessity of public service. Indeed, the future of our American democracy and system of government depends on the ability of a new generation of leaders to step up to the challenge, to be willing to take the risk of public criticism in order to achieve necessary and durable change in our government.
The current moment demands a renewal of the idea of public service for the common good — a replenishment of the once-noble idea of the “habits of the heart” whether in government service or non-profit work or volunteer positions. We are in a moment of true ethical and moral crisis as a nation, but the moment is also an opportunity to pursue real change —- but to enact the change we must achieve, we need new leadership, new ideas, fresh energy and commitment to ideals that have never gone out of fashion, like the ideal of servant leadership, working to help others, living with a daily commitment to honor, integrity and achieving justice for all.
In this year of the America250 observance, we educators have a special responsibility to focus even more acutely on our responsibility to prepare the rising generations for leadership and service across the next 50-75 years of American life. In higher education, we need to stop moping in the corners over the ways in which the current government has been so awful to us — it has been, deal with it — and instead we need to refocus our energy on what we do best, teaching our students how to be change agents for good, advocates and activists for solutions that can make all lives better in this country.
God bless Dr. Fauci. Let his courage and professionalism be a model for the rising servant leaders of the future.
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