President's Class of 2026 Message

Dear Member of the class of 2026,

Please accept my heartfelt congratulations on your graduation day. For those of us who have worked with you, it is deeply gratifying to stand at your side at this moment and watch as you move from our campus into the wider world.

We may never fully know the different pathways you took to get here, or all the ways your time at City College has shaped you. But we do know this: in graduating from this historic institution, you join generations who came here to remake their lives and left prepared to help remake the world. You are heirs to that legacy, and I am confident you will carry it forward with distinction.

Here, we have sought to build a community grounded in ethical purpose—one that values diverse perspectives and asks you to imagine a better world and how to bring it into being. You have been called upon to apply your intellect, ambition, and creativity to the most pressing questions of our time.

You graduate into a world of real complexity and urgency. Global conflicts continue to test our shared humanity. Advances in artificial intelligence are transforming how we live and work, raising profound opportunities and ethical questions. And the accelerating effects of climate change remind us of our responsibility to one another and to the future.

In such a moment, your education calls you not to retreat, but to engage—to approach differences with curiosity, to meet disagreement with reason, and to respond to others with empathy and care. These are not abstract ideals, but essential tools for the world you now enter.

Since 1847, City College has opened pathways of opportunity and strengthened the civic life of New York City and beyond. Many of you are the first in your family to earn a college degree. In doing so, you expand what is possible for those who will follow, affirming education as a powerful force for mobility, dignity, and hope. As you leave us, trust your education and the habits of mind you have developed here. Hold on to your willingness to ask difficult questions, to listen carefully, and to think with clarity and purpose.

Draw on the resilience that brought you to this day.

We have planted a vision of a more just and generous society. It is now yours to cultivate—with courage, integrity, and care.

You take your place among the generations who came before you, as stewards of a proud tradition and authors of what comes next.

Know that we have been honored by your presence and inspired by what you will accomplish.

With my warmest congratulations,

Vince Boudreau
President