Despite Threats Against Science, Olin College Holds Strong

May 19, 2025
• During the engineering college’s 20th commencement ceremony, speakers made reference to turbulent times and how Olin’s strength lies in its specificity and rigor.

In 2006, 66 graduates crossed the stage at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering’s first commencement. Two decades later, 103 seniors performed the same walk, holding the same degrees in their hands.

Much has changed in 20 years, as engineering continues to advance and evolve, but speakers at Friday’s commencement ceremony emphasized a persisting reality: Science and its practitioners are important.

Olin graduates constitute “a small but mighty group,” 2006 graduate Tom Cecil told the crowd. Students spend late nights creating projects and facing deadlines, which makes returning to Olin as a post-graduate truly special.

“This community that you’re joining today, the community of Olin alumni, it’s one of the most impressive groups of people that you’re ever going to find,” Cecil said. “It’s near impossible to succinctly state how lucky we are to have such a fantastic group of intelligent, hard working and compassionate humans, all bound by shared aspects of the Olin experience.”

Students donned personalized caps, featuring circuit boards, a student ID, fire and other large-scale contraptions. Graduates earned degrees in engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical and computer engineering.

The ceremony also marked the last for President Gilda Barabino, who will resign after five years as the college’s leader, only its second in its short history. At a time of great uncertainty — particularly around science and academia — the Olin Class of 2025 appears prepared to face “an unknown tomorrow,” Barabino said.

She played a portion of Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free,” from which she hopes students draw inspiration and a sense of “fearlessness” to speak up.

“There’s a storm brewing and festering, descending on the engineering enterprise and beyond, a storm that threatens freedom, human dignity, rule of law and the common threat of our humanity. We cannot operate in silos or bury ourselves in our neatly defined corners waiting for the storm to pass,” Barabino said. “As Oliners and as members of the engineering community, we are accustomed to drawing on each other’s strengths and working collaboratively to solve problems… We are always at the ready to use our skills to address the greatest challenges of today, including the threat to democracy.”

Commencement speaker Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of Science Magazine, pointed to a nationwide loss of trust in institutions Olin grads will soon enter: government, corporations, science and higher education, to name a few. Science is currently “in a state of turmoil,” Thorp said, citing federal funding cuts that jeopardize early career workers.

Facing such a future — and now present — is daunting, Thorp acknowledged, but Olin students are specially qualified to rise to the occasion.

“These technocrats think it is now O.K. to weaken American science, partly because intelligent machines are going to do science and engineering for us, apparently, even curing all diseases. Now, there’s a simple reason why that won’t work, because even if the machines can do a lot, they can’t benefit people without interacting with, well, people,” he said. “And because you went here, you know a lot about how people interact with machines and with each other. So, if anyone can make machines that safely and equitably benefit people, it’s you.”

In its 20-year history, Olin has cultivated a unique culture of inquiry and chaos, 2025 graduate Malvina Clavering said. Oliners question, mentor and dance — contrary to popular belief, she said. In her four years, Clavering and her peers constructed “North Hall,” a structure made of recycled snow, and started a night market pitched up inside a hallway.

The Class of 2025 will deal with its own chaos beyond its Needham campus, she said, but she urged her classmates to recall the small moments of stress and the calm they found within them.

“If calm is not the answer, embrace the chaos by dancing. Wherever you end up, remember that we’ve learned from each other that dancing brings us together,” Clavering said. “So, wherever you are, find people to dance with, and find a patch of woods to be your Parcel B. O.K., my chaos Muppets, I love you all, congratulations and thank you.”

As is Olin tradition, each graduate could submit a message 15 words or shorter, which is read aloud as they received their degree. Many leaned on the sentimental, inserting inside jokes and thank-yous to loved ones, while others, as Clavering referred, leaned on the chaotic, meeting the word count with extremely long scientific terms and referencing Olin-specific curricula.

“Mechanics, Milan, miracles and many memorable moments in Massachusetts,” Lauren Armstrong wrote.

“Graduated top 100 in her class,” Norah Evans wrote in part.

“Four years at Olin, and this might be the longest writing assignment yet,” Tyler Kurt Ewald wrote.

Faculty and families cheered students as they exited the ceremony, walking not away from campus, but toward it.