WATCH: Allan Dershowitz on the Significance of New College

Renowned constitutional law scholar and civil liberties advocate Alan Dershowitz delivered the keynote address at New College of Florida’s 2025 Commencement Ceremony. Speaking before a full house of graduates, families, faculty, and honored guests, Professor Dershowitz delivered a resounding defense of true academic freedom, intellectual courage, and the enduring importance of dissent in a free society.

With decades of legal and public service experience, Dershowitz hailed New College as a national example of what higher education can and should be: fearless, rigorous, and rooted in foundational ideas—a place where students are taught how to think, not what to think.

“Today’s academia could survive without Harvard or without Yale,” he said in his closing. “I do not believe that today’s academia can survive and thrive without New College.”

His remarks captured a moment of pride and purpose for New College—affirming its mission to cultivate leaders prepared not just for careers, but for the complexities of citizenship in a changing world.