It is a ritual of spring every year. College and many high
schools go in search of inspiration and thought provoking speakers as a
capstone to an important life cycle ceremony. Some choose sports figures,
others select celebrities. A number of institutions choose political figures.
The President and the Vice President of the United States, for example take
turns speaking at our nation’s military academies. Often their speeches leave
little impression and are soon forgotten. I do not remember the speech given at
my college graduation in 1970. I knew that the speaker was Gunnar Myrdal, but I
looked that up recently in my commencement program. He was a sociologist and economist
from Sweden who ended up receiving the Nobel Prize f our years after my
graduation. I am sure that what he said was important but I have no memory of
his words.
Recently, Condoleezza Rice withdrew from speaking at the
Commencement at Rutgers University in New Jersey. There were several protests
from student groups and faculty member that led to her withdrawal. Across the
state, Governor Chris Christie was the featured speaker and received an honorary
doctorate from Rowan University. This in
spite of the fact that Rowan has been since
1923 most well known as a teacher preparation institution and the
speaker during his administration, has reneged on payments to the teachers’ pension
fund and combated teacher tenure laws and school standards.
If we are truly a democratic society and in the academic world
encourage debate, discussion and opposing points of view, then we must be open
minded in the selection of commencement speakers.
As a speaker you do not know who is in the audience and what
positive impression and take away message you send will have a future impact.
C.2014 J. Margolis
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