In his address to the Princeton Class of 2022, President Eisgruber focused on the value of persistence to the graduating students' achievements.

"You earned your degrees today in many ways and for many reasons, but not least because you persisted brilliantly throughout your time on this campus and away from it," he said. "You persisted not only through a world-altering pandemic, but through problem sets, writing assignments, laboratories, midterms, finals, senior theses, dissertations, and the personal crises and doubts that are an inevitable part of college life and, indeed, of life more generally."

President Eisgruber went on to describe why getting across the finish line and earning a degree matters today.

"[Getting a college degree] correlates with everything from higher incomes to better health to greater civic engagement—and the list goes on...which is why we celebrate Commencement day with admiration and exuberant joy."

And while "graduation rates for Princeton students remain sky-high," President Eisgruber explained that this was not necessarily true for other colleges and universities.

“Some students left school during the pandemic and have not returned. Some high school students who might have gone to college have made other choices instead. Though the data is incomplete, both problems appear to have a disproportionate effect on students from less advantaged backgrounds and those who attend community colleges and other public, two-year institutions.”

To this, he commended Governor Murphy's 'Some College, No Degree' program, which would assist the nearly 700,000 New Jersey students who left school without finishing and expressed hoped that the New Jersey Legislature would fund the program. Read more.