Grinnell alum Chase Strangio `04 will be returning to campus as the 2026 commencement speaker.
Strangio is currently the co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project, and in 2024, became the first openly transgender lawyer to argue in front of the Supreme Court.
This year, the class of 2026 fielded speaker nominations from an exclusively alumni pool.
After taking nominations from the entire class of 2026, Morgan Smith `26, one of several students on the commencement committee, said the voting process focused on what the committee thought the larger class would benefit from while listening to a speaker.
“We felt that he was a kind of exemplar candidate out of the alumni because our pool was specifically alumni for the speaker this year,” Smith said of Strangio.
Evan Broaddus `26, another committee member, said that the consistent track record of Strangio’s legal work felt very relevant to the current Iowa legislation, and that it was good to have a voice grounded in the struggle.
From there, the list was gathered into 10 potential candidates, which was passed to the Executive Council, who could choose to remove or re-order any speakers.
“In this case, I don’t know how much reordering they did because our top picks stayed the same, which was Chase Strangio,” Smith said.
Jenny Ferriss, coordinator of commencement and conferences, said her office handles mostly the logistical work of getting a speaker.
This includes asking and helping to bring the list of possible speakers to the executive committee.
Smith also said they had the honor of reaching out to invite Strangio to campus.
“[Jenny Ferriss] offered me the opportunity to be the person to reach out to Chase because I’ve done a lot of similar work on campus,” Smith said.
“So I had been suggested as someone that might be good to reach out as opposed to it being someone from administration,” Smith added.
Jenelle Veit, manager of event coordination and scheduling, said how the office decides who sends the question depends on the circumstances of the speaker.
“If it feels right, maybe it is a student that reaches out,” she said. “I think it just depends on who it is and what the relationship is with the College.”
Committee member Brian Shaffer `26 said they wished a larger variety of students participated in the committee.
“I wish more STEM students got involved with the commencement committee, so graduation can accurately reflect everyone in the student population, not just the people who have more free time,” Shafer said.
Smith and Broaddus said the committee experience was an integral opportunity to contribute to an important part of their final year at the school.
“If you think about graduation as sort of like a rite of passage, I guess it just seemed like a good idea to want to participate in that and want to have a say in how that kind of occurs and how it plays out,” Broaddus said.
“It was a great, great experience,” he said. “It felt empowering to be a student acting in that capacity.”
Strangio will be joined by Holocaust survivor and humanitarian Sam Harris `58 and high school social studies teacher Valerie Schrag in receiving honorary degrees in recognition of their achievements. Commencement will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 18.
