howard university
158th Opening Convocation
Friday, September Nineteenth
Two Thousand Twenty-Five Eleven O’Clock in the Morning
Cramton Auditorium
Main Campus
Ms. Minnie V. Baylor-Henry, Esq.
Dr. Richard E. Besser
Mr. Chris Carr
Mr. Donald B. Christian
The Honorable Arne Duncan
Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick Interim President, President Emeritus, and Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery
Mr. Godfrey Gill
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Reverend Dr. Michele V. Hagans
Ms. Leslie D. Hale
Chair
Dr. Lena Hill
Dr. Danette G. Howard
Mr. Marc S. Lampkin
Mr. Kevin E. Lofton
Mr. Mark A. L. Mason Vice Chair
Ms. Depelsha McGruder
TRUSTEES EMERITI
Dr. John E. Jacob Chairman Emeritus
The Honorable Marie C. Johns
Mr. Robert Lumpkins
The Honorable Gabrielle K. McDonald
Stacey J. Mobley, Esq. Chairman Emeritus
Mr. James J. Murren
Mr. Ziad Ojakli
Mr. Levoyd Robinson
Ms. Hilary Rosen
Mr. Shelley Stewart Jr.
Mr. Bruce E. Thompson
Mr. Christopher J. Tyson
Dr. A. Eugene Washington
Mr. Chris Washington
Martin D. Payson, Esq.
The Honorable M. Kasim Reed
The Honorable L. Douglas Wilder
Mrs. Benaree Pratt Wiley
PATRON EX-OFFICIO
The Honorable Linda McMahon United States Secretary of Education
OFFICERS OF THE UNIVERSITY
Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA Interim President, President Emeritus, and Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery
Cynthia Evers, Ed.D. Senior Vice President for Student Affairs
Rebecca Vasquez-Skillings Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Princess Gamble Vice President and Interim Chief Development Officer
Lydia G. Sermons Vice President of Communications and Chief Communications Officer
Anthony K. Wutoh, Ph.D., R.Ph. Provost and Chief Academic Officer
Florence W. Prioleau, Esq. Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Rashad Young Senior Vice President for Administration and Chief Administrative Officer
Marchon Jackson Interim Vice President of Research
Christie L. Taylor Secretary, Board of Trustees
Andrea Hayes Dixon, M.D., FACS Dean and Senior Vice President of Health Affairs
Keyana M. Scales, Ed.D. Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success
Allison Bryant, Ph.D. Vice President of Corporate Relations
Warren Petty, Ed.D. Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
2025 OPENING CONVOCATION PROGRAM
PRESIDING
Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA
Interim President, President Emeritus, and Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery
ACADEMIC AND PLATFORM PARTY PROCESSION
Howard University Wind Symphony
Chancellor Mills, Conductor
War March of the Priests by Felix Mendelssohn
PRESENTATION OF COLORS
THE NATIONAL ANTHEM
The Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key
LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING by James Weldon Johnson
INVOCATION
Reverend Bernard L. Richardson, Ph.D. Dean, Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel
PRESIDENT’S WELCOME
Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA
BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIR'S WELCOME
Leslie D. Hale, MBA Chair, Howard University Board of Trustees
MUSIC
Howard University Concert Chorale
Howard University Percussion Ensemble Eric Poole, DMA, Conductor
PRESENTATION OF CONVOCATION ORATRIX
Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA
CONVOCATION ADDRESS
Sherrilyn A. Ifill
Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights and founder/director of the 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy.
MUSIC
Howard University Choir and Chorale Eric Poole, DMA, Conductor
CLOSING REMARKS
Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA
ALMA MATER
BENEDICTION
Reverend Bernard L. Richardson, Ph.D.
RETIRING OF THE COLORS
ACADEMIC AND PLATFORM RECESSIONAL
THE CONVOCATION SPEAKER
Sherrilyn Ifill is a civil rights lawyer and founding director of the 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy at the Howard University School of Law. From 2013–2022, she served as the president and directorcounsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. She recently served as a Ford Foundation fellow and as the Klinsky Visiting Professor for Leadership and Progress at Harvard Law School, and as a fellow at the Museum of Modern Art. Ifill is currently the Vernon Jordan Distinguished Professor in Civil Rights at Howard Law School, where she founded the 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy.
Ifill’s tenure at the helm of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund was widely praised for elevating the profile, voice, and influence of the organization, and for expanding and deepening its work across multiple areas of civil rights law. Ifill’s voice and analysis played a prominent role in shaping our national conversation about race and civil rights during a tumultuous period of racial reckoning in our country. Her strategic vision and counsel remain highly sought-after by leaders in government, business, law, grassroots organizations, and academia.
Ifill began her legal career as a fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union, before joining the staff of the LDF as an assistant counsel, where she litigated voting rights cases in the South. In 1993, Ifill left LDF to join the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore where she taught for twenty years before rejoining LDF in 2013 as its president and director-counsel.
Ifill is a scholar whose work has appeared in leading law journals, periodicals, and the nation’s leading newspapers. Her book “On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century” was highly acclaimed and is credited with laying the foundation for contemporary conversations about lynching and reconciliation. She is currently completing a new book about race and the current crisis in American democracy entitled, "Is This America?," which will be published by Penguin Press.
Ifill is a graduate of Vassar College and earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law. She is the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates and many of the most prestigious medals in the legal profession, including the Radcliffe Medal, the Brandeis Medal, the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, and the Gold Medal from the New York State Bar Association. Ifill was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019 and was named by TIME Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2021.
THE ALMA MATER
Reared against the eastern sky Proudly there on hilltop high. Far above the lake so blue, Stands old Howard firm and true. There she stands for truth and right, Sending forth her rays of light, Clad in robes of majesty; O Howard, we sing of thee.
Be thou still our guide and stay Leading us from day to day; Make us true and leal and strong, Ever hold to battle wrong. When from thee we’ve gone away, May we strive for thee each day. As we sail life’s rugged sea, O Howard, we’ll sing of thee.
—Words, J. H. Brooks, Class of 1916 —Music, F. D. Malone, Class of 1916
THE MACE
The mace is the ceremonial symbol of the University and is carried by the University Marshal. One of the earliest visual images of the mace is the front side of the “Narmer Palette” of Ancient Egypt, an oval-shaped cosmetic palette inscribed with human and anthropomorphic figures. King Narmer is depicted on the palette as a mighty conqueror yielding a mace over a symbolic enemy. King Narmer, also known as King Menes or King Midas to the ancient Greeks, unified Upper and Lower Egypt circa 3100 B.C., ushering in the great pyramidbuilding of the old kingdom dynasties (c. 3000–2150 B.C.) of imperial Egypt. At today’s Opening Convocation, the entry of the mace heralds the arrival of the academic procession.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIN OF OFFICE (THE MEDALLION)
The Presidential Chain of Office was presented to the University on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration in 1967 by Trustee Emeritus Herman B. Wells and his mother, Mrs. Granville Wells. It is a visible symbol of the Office of the President and has been worn by all presidents of Howard University since 1967. The basic material of the chain is sterling silver plated with hard gold. Both the University seal and the centennial seal are appended to the chain.
LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING
Lift every voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise. High as the listening skies. Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun. Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered; Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou Who has brought us thus far on the way; Thou Who has by Thy might, led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee, Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, True to our God, true to our native land.
—James Weldon Johnson (1900)