For the second year, Pace will hold a combined ceremony for graduates of its three campuses at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens
Pace University alumnus Telfar Clemens ’08, a celebrated fashion designer and founder of the label Telfar, will address Pace University’s Commencement 2023 and receive an honorary doctorate. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren will address the Elisabeth Haub School of Law graduating class. In addition, Sen. Warren and Harvard Law Professor and legal historian Bruce H. Mann will both receive honorary degrees. Trustee and alumnus Ivan G. Seidenberg ’81, retired chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications, will address graduates of Pace’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems to mark the school’s 40th anniversary.
The university’s commencement will be held on May 15, 2023, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. This year’s commencement marks the second consecutive year that Pace will hold a combined ceremony for graduates of its campuses in New York City and Pleasantville, N.Y., and its Elisabeth Haub School of Law in White Plains, N.Y. The university will honor the entire Class of 2023 at its main ceremony, highlighted by Clemens’ remarks, and graduating students will cross the stage at their individual school and college ceremonies.
At Commencement each year, Pace also honors community members who exemplify the Pace motto of Opportunitas. This year’s Opportunitas in Action winner is Aldrin Enis, president of One Hundred Black Men of New York, a community service organization and longtime Pace partner that helps to create educational and career opportunities for Black youth in New York City.
“This remarkable group of honorees speaks to the many accomplishments and wide-ranging interests
of the Class of 2023 and the Pace University community,” said Pace President Marvin Krislov. “I’m pleased that we will once again be celebrating all of our graduates together in one in-person celebration, and I’m even happier that we’ll have such an impressive group of role models to help us mark this momentous occasion.”
Clemens will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree, honoris causa, at the 12:15 p.m. main ceremony, and he will address the graduates and their guests. Clemens is a wildly successful entrepreneur. He spent his time at Pace deconstructing garments and inventing his own creations; he later established himself as a fashion force to be reckoned with. In 2017, he won the coveted CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award and its $400,000 prize. He invested that money in production of the Telfar Shopping Bag—now lovingly known as “the Bushwick Birkin” for its status as an accessible icon.
Sen. Warren will address graduates of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law in their morning ceremony. Warren, a consumer advocate who has made her life’s work the fight for middle class families, was elected by voters in Massachusetts to the U.S. Senate on November 6, 2012. A former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, she is recognized as one of the nation's top experts on bankruptcy, and the Boston Globe has called her “the plainspoken voice of people getting crushed by so many predatory lenders and under regulated banks.”
Sen. Warren and her husband, Harvard Law Professor and legal historian Bruce H. Mann, will also receive Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, the highest honor conferred by the Law School -- recognizing their lifelong contributions to public service and the legal profession -- at the law school ceremony. Mann is an American legal scholar who has taught at Harvard Law School, where he is the Carl F. Schipper Jr. Professor of Law, since 2006, teaching American Legal History and Property. His research focuses on the relationship among legal, social, and economic change in the American Revolutionary era.
Ivan G. Seidenberg ’81 will address the joint afternoon ceremony for the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems and the College of Health Professions. Seidenberg earned a master’s degree in business administration and marketing at Pace. His telecommunications career began more than 50 years ago when he joined New York Telephone; he retired as chairman and CEO of its successor company, Verizon Communications. He is a tireless advocate for both diversity and academic excellence, and Pace awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2000. The Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems was named in his honor in 2006 after he donated what was then the largest gift ever received by Pace University.
Since 1906, Pace University has been transforming the lives of its diverse students—academically, professionally, and socioeconomically. With campuses in New York City and Westchester County, Pace offers bachelor, master, and doctoral degree programs to 13,600 students in its College of Health Professions, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Elisabeth Haub School of Law, Lubin School of Business, School of Education, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.
Together with members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators, Westchester County Executive George Latimer signed the Safety Measures for Survivors of Domestic Violence Act. The Act is part of an ongoing effort to protect victims and survivors of domestic and gender-based violence. In part, the Act will provide free lock changes and the installation of a video doorbell at a domestic violence survivor’s home.
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is proud to announce that Dean Horace E. Anderson Jr. was named to the “2024 Trailblazers in Education” list published by City & State New York magazine. The list recognizes “100 professionals who are keeping New York at the fast-paced forefront of higher education" and includes presidents, professors and provosts, lobbyists, lawyers, nonprofit entrepreneurs, advocates, and others who are shaping the future of education.
During a special event at the American Museum of Natural History, Pace University recognized five outstanding community and business leaders, and alumni at The Spirit of Pace Awards. Celebrating Pace University’s role as a national leader in providing a college education with strong return on investment, the annual event brings the University community together to support student scholarships and special initiatives.