Invocation and Land Acknowledgement

Sunday, May 25, 2025
by Rev. Samuel H. Speers, Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life and Contemplative Practices

Good morning. What a day!

Beloved people, we gather this morning to bear witness to the commencement—the beginning anew—of 630 shining human beings.

The tradition of this commencement celebration begins with an invocation, which means literally a “calling in.” We are called in, to ourselves and to each other, to be present—to attend—to the fullness of this moment and the depth of our gratitude for it.

We gather together to mark and celebrate all you have accomplished, all you have experienced, all you have become, all you are becoming. We feel especially our connection with all those who cannot gather with us in person— including the families of our students from around the world for whom travel is not possible at this time—but whose joy in you and what you have accomplished is not dimmed by distance.

We welcome those of you joining us from afar.

On this day of new beginnings, may we feel the invitation to make commencement a lifelong practice, always learning to begin where we are, fully present in the difficulty, admitting uncertainty, daring to be vulnerable, nurturing friendships, forging solidarities. May we sense our calling: to make this world more loving, more just, more kind; and always to be open—open to the creative possibility that attends beginnings.

All beginnings begin with naming where we are:

We acknowledge that Vassar stands upon the homelands of the Munsee Lenape, Indigenous peoples who have an enduring connection to this place despite being forcibly displaced by European colonization. Munsee Lenape peoples continue today as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, the Delaware Tribe and Delaware Nation in Oklahoma, the Munsee-Delaware Nation in Ontario. This acknowledgment, however, is insufficient without our reckoning with the reality that every member of the Vassar community since 1861 has benefited from these Native peoples’ displacement, and it is hollow without our efforts to counter the effects of structures that have long enabled—and that still perpetuate—injustice against Indigenous Americans. To that end, we commit to build and sustain relationships with Native communities; to expand opportunities at Vassar for Native students as well as Native employees; and to collaborate with Native nations to know better the Indigenous peoples, past and present, who care for this land.