Barbara Walters shares her 'view' at Sarah Lawrence commencement

Barbara Walters' career is destined for Yonkers.

Just retired, Walters will send a collection of papers, recordings and photographs that document her decades as a television journalist to her alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College in shady Lawrence Park West.

Walters joined Sarah Lawrence President Karen Lawrence in announcing her donation in a surprise appearance at the college's 86th commencement Friday. Amid applause, Walters offered graduates quips and advice.

"When I attended Sarah Lawrence," Walters said, "there was a wonderful professor ... Joseph Campbell. And what he told us and what he hoped we would remember was 'to follow our bliss.'

"I have to tell you that when I left Sarah Lawrence, I had no idea what my 'bliss' was. So if you are like me and you have no idea what your 'bliss' is, get a job. I promise you that bliss will come."

Walters credited the college for instilling in her a sense of journalistic fearlessness. She recalled an interview she conducted some years ago with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Saving her toughest question for last, Walters recounted asking Putin, a former KGB operative, if he'd ever killed anyone.

"He said, 'No, that was not my department,' " Walters said. "So later, several people said, 'Where did you get the nerve to ask a question like that?' And I said, 'It's easy. I went to a college where I was not afraid to ask questions.' And this is that college. That is my contribution to world peace. So I thank Sarah Lawrence for it. I have been asking questions ever since my graduation and this is one more chance today, to wish all of you a wonderful, fulfilling life and to say thank you to this college I love."

Lawrence thanked Walters for her contribution to Sarah Lawrence.

"We are thrilled by this new gift from our extraordinary alumna so that her legacy can be shared with students, scholars and beyond," Lawrence said.

Fareed Zakaria, a journalist and author who hosts a show on CNN, delivered the ceremony's keynote address. Zakaria's remarks reflected on the current state of liberal education in America, where liberal arts colleges like Sarah Lawrence are roundly criticized for not adequately equipping students to perform jobs in the digital age.

Institutions like Sarah Lawrence, Zakaria argued, remain vital.

"I know I'm supposed to say that a liberal education teaches you to think but thinking and writing are inextricably intertwined," he said. "The columnist Walter Lippmann, when asked his thoughts on a particular topic, is said to have replied, 'I don't know what I think on that one. I haven't written about it yet.' There is, in modern philosophy, a great debate as to which comes first — thought or language. I have nothing to say about it. All I know is that when I begin to write, I realize that my 'thoughts' are usually a jumble of half-baked, incoherent impulses strung together with gaping logical holes between them. It is the act of writing that forces me to think through them and sort them out. Whether you are a novelist, a businessman, a marketing consultant, or a historian, writing forces you to make choices and brings clarity and order to your ideas."

One-hundred and twenty-five master's candidates and 330 baccalaureate candidates received degrees; as many as 1,600 people attended Friday's exercises.