President's Charge to Jonathan Alger '86

Jonathan Alger, born and raised outside Rochester, New York, you vowed to one day live and work in Washington, D.C. After graduating with honors from Swarthmore and Harvard Law, you fulfilled that pledge, first at a law firm and, not long after, joining the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights — an experience you have called transformative.

In that role, you spearheaded the development and implementation of national policies on race-conscious financial aid, racial harassment, and free expression that have benefited generations of college students. In the process, you discovered a higher calling in higher education.

You have since held significant leadership roles at the University of Michigan, Rutgers, James Madison, and now as the 16th president of American University. If there’s a through-line, it is your belief that wherever our journeys take us — on campus, and beyond — is a work in progress, and that work requires the best of all of us.

You continue to evolve to meet the needs of your students and the demands of a changing world. Now, upon the recommendation of the faculty, and by the power vested in me by the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I have the honor to bestow upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.