The Program

Graduates:

We have arrived at a joyous season…one in which you will be graduated from the most substantively diverse, talented, and passionate community in the national higher education landscape— your Delaware State University.

This moment is yours.

Revel in it—in your job well done, in the joy of friends and family, and in the pride associated with genuine and complex achievement. You have earned it!

As each of you breaks from our student ranks to join the broader legion of alumni, know that “Hornet Pride” travels with you as you go, wherever you go. New adventures await, but always remember that Delaware State University alumni are as committed to reaching beyond the self to serve as they are to fulfilling their own dreams. And no dream is beyond your capacity!

Over the last challenging years, we have learned together, and we— the faculty, staff, and leadership of this incredible institution—thank you for your patience, hard work, and dedication. We know that there are a myriad of ways to serve, many of which we cannot even imagine. We also know that you will take the lessons symbolized by your degree to find your place of usefulness and honor in the world— as professionals, as parents, and as citizens of our global community.

Take heart; know for sure you are prepared for it all.

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” Congratulations and remember . . .

Together.

Tony Allen, Ph.D. President

DeMaurice Fitzgerald Smith

Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association

DeMaurice Fitzgerald Smith is the Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), the Labor Union for Players of the National Football League (NFL). He was reappointed to his fifth term as Executive Director in fall 2021.

In March 2020, he successfully negotiated his second long-term Collective Bargaining Agreement with the National Football League. The eleven-year deal will introduce an additional game into the regular season but also provide players with their guaranteed highest share of NFL revenue in history. He also led the negotiations to create comprehensive COVID-19 protections and protocols for his membership, obtained comprehensive testing and opt out provisions for players and designed the return to play agreements that secured NFL players being paid their full salary for the season despite a projected $3 billion revenue shortfall for the NFL in 2020. The NFL was able to play an entire season, playoffs, and Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay, Florida, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On August 4, 2011, Smith signed an historic 10-year Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with NFL management, leading the players through the owners’ 132-day lockout. The two Collective Bargaining Agreements remain the longest standing agreements between labor and management in any sports league. Prior to his post at the NFLPA, Smith was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia and was Counsel to then-Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. Smith served as a Partner in the international law firms of Latham & Watkins, LLP and Squire Patton Boggs, LLP, in Washington, D.C. where he represented corporations, boards of directors and senior executives in civil and criminal matters.

Mr. Smith is a sought-after motivational speaker for corporations, labor unions, and charities, and a guest lecturer and distinguished speaker on college campuses around the country on the topics of leadership, ethics, sports law, and high-stakes negotiation.

Smith, a native Washingtonian, resides in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area with his family.