Rutgers’ 2017 commencement speakers: Springsteen guitarist, trailblazing Librarian of Congress
Musician Steven Van Zandt will speak at Rutgers-New Brunswick’s ceremony; Carla D. Hayden, the first black Librarian of Congress, will speak at Rutgers-Camden.
Carla D. Hayden, the first black librarian of Congress and first woman to serve in that position, will be the keynote speaker at Rutgers-Camden's commencement ceremony in May, the university announced Wednesday.
Steven Van Zandt, a musician with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and an actor who played Silvio Dante in The Sopranos, will speak at Rutgers in New Brunswick.
Hayden will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters and deliver the College of Arts and Sciences commencement address during the May 17 ceremony at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden.
"Not only has she been just a wonderful librarian and somebody really committed to access for libraries, but she's also tremendously civically engaged," Phoebe A. Haddon, chancellor of Rutgers-Camden, said.
Hayden, the 14th head of the Library of Congress, was nominated to that position by President Barack Obama in February 2016 and confirmed five months later. Before that, she led the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore's public library system.
Haddon, who was the dean of the University of Maryland's Baltimore-based law school, recalled attending events at the library and seeing them turned into public gathering places for conversation.
"It's somewhat ironic that you're talking about a library, where you usually think about being quiet, as a place where people are having great conversations and thought-provoking conversations, and feeling comfortable having those conversations with people they don't know," she said.
Rutgers' board of governors approved the commencement speaker selections Wednesday.
Rutgers-Camden will hold commencement ceremonies for its other academic units May 17 and 18. Rutgers-New Brunswick's ceremony is scheduled for May 14.
At the New Brunswick ceremony, Van Zandt — known to many as "Little Steven" — will receive an honorary doctor of fine arts degree.
Harvey J. Makadon, director of the National LGBT Health Education Center and National Center for Innovation in HIV Care, will receive an honorary doctor of science degree at the New Brunswick ceremony.
Van Zandt was a member of Springsteen's early bands and joined the E Street Band in 1975, co-producing The River and Born in the U.S.A. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of the E Street Band.