Recognition
“Ideally I’d like to hear someone I’d recognize,” says one LSA senior of this year’s graduation speaker. “It would be nice if we had someone decent…we should be able to get someone with a name,” complains another. The speaker does in fact have a name, though, and a pretty cool one: Christiane Amanpour. Perhaps these seniors should graduate next year instead, after some remedial journalism classes.
You miss the point: she wants someone with just ONE name, like Britney. Or Cher. Or Madonna. Two names is so confusing!
posted by Nitro on March 17th, 2006 at 12:19 pmBono.
posted by Cold Bacon on March 17th, 2006 at 12:47 pmI find it strangely disturbing that we have a student on this campus named “Porsha.”
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on March 17th, 2006 at 1:15 pmOther than Tulane getting the former presidents, I think Michigan actually has the best speaker of all the schools listed in the article. Billy Joel? Jodie Foster? WTF?
posted by Dale on March 17th, 2006 at 1:27 pmUgh. That was sort of a depressing read. I can only imagine the parts of the interviews which didn’t make it to print:
PORSHA: We would rather have someone that could give advice and inspiration that we could relate to…like Jack Black.
posted by FAA on March 17th, 2006 at 2:03 pmDAILY REPORTER: You’re not inspired by Amanpour’s courageous, award-winning coverage of the recent wars?
PORSHA: There’s a war?
Hm… well, given the people who are getting honorary degrees, I’d kind of lean towards Amartya Sen. Somehow I don’t think that would satisfy Porsha, though.
posted by Lisa on March 17th, 2006 at 2:45 pmThat’s who spoke at Harvard the time I was there for a friend’s graduation. I couldn’t really see anything, though, and I don’t remember much.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 17th, 2006 at 3:07 pmWho spoke at your graduations?
posted by Anonymous on March 17th, 2006 at 4:52 pmIt’s freakin’ Christine Amanpour? I just saw the Daily headline about people all up-in-arms about it again, and didn’t even look to see who it was.
Neat. Works for me… eh, now that I think about it, I don’t think she can really deliver the inspiration. Only an alumni can do that.
posted by Jen on March 17th, 2006 at 5:08 pmMy graduation speaker: Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner & human rights lawyer/activist from Iran. (Bennington College, Vermont, 2004).
posted by Heidi on March 17th, 2006 at 5:46 pmHA! I had George, Sr. It was horrible. My republican family loved it, and my mom even tried to give one of my younger sisters her seat to inspire the budding republican in her (only 2 people could actually come, the others had to watch it on tv at a remote location). It was an election year and he talked about the booming economy… and I didn’t have a job after graduation. This was conservative Texas in 1992… they lapped it up.
posted by Transplant on March 17th, 2006 at 9:41 pmwhoa. i had george, sr. too! weird!
posted by Cold Bacon on March 18th, 2006 at 12:15 amI think he was making the rounds that year, trying to drum up votes with all of the parents sitting in the audience. There’s something about a campaign-based graduation speech that makes your stomach turn.
How embarassing for UM…shocker.
posted by Transplant on March 18th, 2006 at 8:32 amexcept mine was in 1996.
posted by Cold Bacon on March 18th, 2006 at 11:32 amYup the year George sr was here we threw brocoli at his motorcade. Later that day he was back at his regular vacation spot (i forget where that is) and he was hospitalized briefly with heart palpatations.
posted by BG on March 18th, 2006 at 1:43 pmkennebunkport, maine.
posted by Anna on March 18th, 2006 at 2:22 pmCNN needs to re-title its coverage “THE WORLD’S MOST X-TREME JOURNALISTS” and then maybe more of the college crowd would know Amanpour.
The only thing I remember about my graduation speaker was that he was incredibly lame.
posted by Dave on March 19th, 2006 at 11:54 amActually, I don’t think U of M has journalism classes.
posted by mnemonic on March 19th, 2006 at 12:03 pmWell, yes, they got rid of their journalism school, but I’m sure that there’s some class somewhere that has something to do with the history of the press.
When I graduated, we got Click and Clack.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 19th, 2006 at 1:06 pmI think this is just backlash from 2004 and 2005. I don’t think the students were wrong to be underwhelmed by David E. Davis and John Seely Brown, and I can understand if they were expecting the university to respond with someone big and exciting.
For me, there are two problems, neither of which are entirely about the stature of the speaker. First, if the selection committee is going to pull commencement speakers from those close to the university like it did with Davis and Brown, it could have at least picked two really great speakers. While Davis was good, Brown was lackluster.
Its an issue of effort. Either work to get the biggest name possible or work to get the best speech possible, but don’t half heartedly pluck someone from your ranks that’s going to flop - not with so many great university professors available to speak on a moments notice. Ralph Williams would have been a better speaker than John Seely Brown.
Second, like it or not, selecting a commencment speaker is a political thing. Its an important statement about your university. It speaks to your stature and it speaks to the quality of student that you’re producing. Students at UM deserve to be somewhat disheartened to read about students at MSU hearing current National Security Advisor speak, or when students at nearby Ave Maria get a current Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, or when the president of NPR speaks at Eastern Michigan. (The winter ceremony, no less)
posted by Daniel Adams on March 19th, 2006 at 1:46 pmI certainly don’t think that students are spoiled brats for complaining about a graduation speaker — I wasn’t thrilled with Click and Clack — but for them not to recognize that Christiane Amanpour is orders of magnitude above the previous two seems incredibly uninformed.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 19th, 2006 at 2:17 pmNot recognizing a CNN reporter by name says very little about how informed or uninformed UM students are. I recognize Amanpour, but I couldn’t tell you who the international correspondant is for FOX news or MSNBC. Does that make me uninformed?
posted by Daniel Adams on March 19th, 2006 at 2:32 pmAmanpour isn’t just a CNN reporter, she’s an incredibly well respected and well known CNN reporter. There isn’t an equivalent at Fox.
posted by Anna on March 19th, 2006 at 4:02 pmAmanpour, for some reason, is the only reporter I remember actually doing work in the Persian Gulf during the first gulf war, on the ground (and I believe without any of nowadays embedded nonsense). I remember more about Bosnia, but again, she’s inevitably associated with it in my mind. I think it’s more of the groundbreaking she did - for example, I can’t distinguish between all of the media whores Stephen Colbert parodies, except Bill O’Reilly - I can only stand to hear him talk for 60 seconds or less, but I know who he is, because he’s so damned notorious. Since I didn’t have cable TV during Gulf War 1.0 or Bosnia, I assume that’s why I know who Amanpour is - I’ve never taken a class that covered any of the her work, at least.
Then again, I’ve met history majors who didn’t know who Zinn and Chomsky were, and English majors who by junior year still had issues on lay/laid/lie. I’ve learned not to assume too much or too little about anyone’s intelligence and knowledge bank period at this point - I’ve met plenty of idiots about to receive / with U of M degrees, and one of the best discussions I’ve ever had on the philosophy of religion was from a kid who never graduated high school. The most intelligent and diversely talented student I’ve ever met graduated from Wayne State last year. So it goes.
posted by Anonymous on March 19th, 2006 at 5:16 pmAgreed, but beside the point. I could read the NY Times, WSJ and Washington Post each day cover to cover, be very well informed, and not know who Amanpour is. Admittedly, I didn’t do that as a UM student. But I didn’t watch much cable news either, so its within the realm of possibility that if asked two years ago if I knew of Christine Amanpour, I might not have had an answer. Regardless, I knew what was going on in the world - most of the time, anyway.
And of all the myriad ways to call UM students dumb, why this? CNN Correspondents for $200 is the line between informed and uninformed? That’s nuts.
posted by Daniel Adams on March 19th, 2006 at 5:17 pmAmanpour was in the Gulf as an embedded war reporter. (I was in 2nd grade at the time, so I had to look it up. Imagine how old the students quoted in the Daily story were when Amanpour was making a name for herself…)
posted by Daniel Adams on March 19th, 2006 at 5:22 pmyeah, but can she tell a good joke? isn’t that all that really matters at these things?
posted by Cold Bacon on March 19th, 2006 at 5:33 pmFor the record, I’m a senior, I don’t watch the news often, but I like Christiane Amanpour very much. I remember my mom watching her many years ago and telling me that I should come into the living room and listen to what she had to say. I’ve always respected her on TV and enjoyed her correspondence on NPR. While I’m a little sour at not having a bigger name (and I don’t think that’s unfair), I think her speech is going to be far more interesting that most celebrities would be capable of. Easier on the ears too.
posted by Jeremy on March 19th, 2006 at 11:12 pm“easier on the ears”
wow. you don’t hear that every day. unless you’re with me when i’m cuddling up to any and all things BBC, just about every chance i get.
posted by Cold Bacon on March 20th, 2006 at 1:10 am“And of all the myriad ways to call UM students dumb, why this?”
Not knowing one particular name isn’t what’s dumb.
What’s dumb is just leaving it at that. You’d think if there was one thing an educated person would know, it’d be that they don’t know everything. It’s pretty dumb to assume that if you haven’t heard of someone, that person must be unsuccessful, boring, etc.
And what’s the association between your own status and having a household name as your graduation speaker? I don’t get it. I guess people’s expectation is that they should be able to go home and say “X spoke at our graduation” and have people automatically go “oooh, X!” without any further explanation? Whatever.
posted by Bruce Fields on March 20th, 2006 at 10:25 amAs CNN’s chief international correspondent, Amanpour has reported on most crises from the world’s most dangerous places, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda , Zaire, and the Balkans. Her interviews include exclusives with French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair (first interview after 9/11), Mahmoud Abbas, the first ever interview with Jordan’s new monarch, King Abdullah and the last interview with his father King Hussein, President Musharraf, Chairman Arafat and ex-Prime Minister Barak, Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and President Khatami.
Among her many awards, she has received two Emmys, two George Foster Peabody Awards, two George Polk Awards, a Courage in Journalism Award, a Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival Gold Award, the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, was named 1994 Woman of the Year by the New York Chapter of Women in Cable and Telecommunications, won the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award for Distinguished Achievement in Broadcast Journalism; the Sigma Chi Award (SDX) for her reports from Goma, Zaire. Her 1991 Gulf War reporting received the Breakthrough Award from Women, Men and Media. She was named one of Forbes “100 Most Powerful Women” in 2005. She has been named a Fellow in the Society of Professional Journalists.
She has not only reported from most of the global crises of the last 20 years, she has influenced global events in ways that few people will ever have the chance to do. She is one of the most well-known people in the world.
But other than that, nah, she isn’t worthy of talking to Michigan graduates.
posted by Juliew on March 20th, 2006 at 12:24 pmClearly Ms. Amanpour is an accomplished individual. I think it’s okay for graduates to complain about their speakers no matter who the speakers are. We might be predisposed to judge these graduates based on their preferences and dislikes, but it is their graduation, and not anybody else’s.
And as for selecting individuals that may have “influenced global events in ways that few people will ever have the chance to do”, I’m pretty sure that Mr. Bush ranks higher on that list than Ms. Amanpour;)
posted by JCP2 on March 20th, 2006 at 12:45 pmJuliew:
Neither I nor anyone else on this thread has argued that Amanpour isn’t a good journalist or that she isn’t worthy of speaking at commencement. I’m merely offering an alternative explanation for the undergraduate discontent.
posted by Daniel Adams on March 20th, 2006 at 1:53 pmBruce:
While it may be dumb to assume that a person you’ve never heard is “unsuccessful” etc, its not dumb for UM students to see the game for what it is. Evaluating a commencment speaker based on name recognition alone may be the intellectual equivelent of “Who’s dick is bigger?” but its a sort of calculation that does go on - both at the state and national level. Students see that. They view their education competitively. They want every advantage, even if its cosmetic. That’s not dumb. That’s rational.
Frankly, I admire the university to some degree for not playing along. But again, if they’re going to pick based on quality and not just name recognition, they’d better get a good one each time. At UM, there’s no excuse for picking a lackluster speaker.
posted by Daniel Adams on March 20th, 2006 at 2:05 pm“its a sort of calculation that does go on - both at the state and national level. Students see that.”
Uh, where? In their heads?
I can just see it–future employees everywhere combing through lists of their applicants’ institutions’ commencement speakers, toting up the presidents. It probably ranks right up there with the macrame club presidency and the letter to the Daily editor as a resume booster.
posted by Bruce Fields on March 20th, 2006 at 2:55 pmI don’t know if Michigan is playing that game or not, but regardless, Christiane Amanpour trumps almost everyone I can think of.
posted by Dale on March 20th, 2006 at 3:13 pmTo tell you the truth, I’d never heard of her before this. But some of us don’t spend our time watching TV news, so sue us. She seems like she’d be interesting, however.
We had Gov. Granholm when I graduated the first time… a bigger name(?), but an average speaker.
posted by Brandon on March 20th, 2006 at 3:36 pmI think the “calculation” is done for the benefit of the parents or other relatives that may be attending or hear of the event, especially if they contributed to the education monetarily or otherwise. As for myself, the whole experience was one of breathless anticipation for it to be all over, as there was the issue of hot weather, polyester gown, sweaty body, clammy handshake, blinding flash, and post-graduation lunch with the family.
posted by JCP2 on March 20th, 2006 at 3:46 pmMy April 2002 graduation at WMU didn’t have a speaker. The provost (summarily fired shortly thereafter, reputedly for an affair with a graduate student who was head of the graduate student committee) told a couple stories about uplifting graduates in the class of ‘02 — working mothers, twins who went to school together, a couple who got married, etc.
posted by Dale on March 20th, 2006 at 3:55 pmI don’t know if any of you remember when Christianne Amanpour challenged Bill Clinton about Bosnia at either a town meeting or debate in the 90s and he got very pissy in his reply to her, and indignantly called her “Madam.”
She is world class, and her dedication to reporting from the worst places around the world in an intelligent and passionate way is what makes her stand out. Too bad she’s not so much into domestic issues as we could certainly use some reporters with balls around here.
For the People Magazine set who would be more impressed with Paris Hilton or some starlet speaking for graduation, you will be gratified to know that Christianne was a housemate of John F. Kennedy Jr. at Brown.
posted by OFWinsurgent on March 20th, 2006 at 3:59 pm“but for them not to recognize that Christiane Amanpour is orders of magnitude above the previous two”
Um, no. Amanpour is a good television reporter. This is orders of magnitude below the impact John Seely Brown has had on society due both to his research and heading Xerox PARC. I don’t know how good a speaker he is, but with the possible exception of Woodward and Bernstein’s role in Watergate, no reporter comes anywhere near having as much societal impact as a major scientist/engineer.
posted by Tom on March 20th, 2006 at 5:31 pmPerhaps we are looking at this situation from the wrong way around. Maybe the problem is not with the graduation speakers, but with those graduating. If a graduating student pitches a fit because the University chose a speaker because their credentials, achievements, and ability makes them worthy of an honorary degree, maybe students should only graduate if they had enough hits on their facebook account or a big enough reputation in the Greek community. College is just a popularity contest, right?
posted by c-m-s on March 20th, 2006 at 5:48 pmBecause of work I’ve attended at least 20 graduation ceremonies over the last 10-15 years, including Clinton at EMU and NPR president Kevin Close, also at Eastern. Of all of these graduations who gave the best speech? Author Loren Estelman, because he’s the one person who just had fun with it.
Who speaks at a graduation ceremony is almost completely worthless since it’s just about always the same damn speech, with many of the same quotations. It is marginally funny that UofM students don’t know Amanpour, but I must say in many ways my college years were the ones I was list focused on current events, particularly individual reporters (even one of the best around) on cable television.
So in the end, graduation speakers may very well be a keep up with the jones’s at your rival school situation, but really it’s just a battle to have a bigger name give a similiarly boring speech.
posted by anon on March 20th, 2006 at 6:05 pm“I can just see it–future employees everywhere combing through lists of their applicants’ institutions’ commencement speakers, toting up the presidents.”
Yeah, because that’s exactly where I was going with my last comment. Am I just talking to myself? Or do you really believe that this doesn’t matter at all? That when papers run their annual stories on who’s speaking where, people don’t notice a big name at a great school?
On some level, it all ties back into prestige. Whether students and universities should be sensitive to those pressures is another discussion.
posted by Daniel Adams on March 20th, 2006 at 6:29 pmI think it actually speaks to some UM students’ insecurity with the school’s standing relative to other universities. At most places, people who didn’t know her would google Amanpour and think, “hm, cool… bet she’ll have something interesting to say.” I can’ imagine the students at Harvard yammering on and on about their prestige if Amanpour were to be scheduled there instead.
posted by Anna on March 20th, 2006 at 7:30 pmWell, a lot of people at Yale did complain about the Fonz (for his scholarly credentials, not his name recognition.)
posted by ann arbor is overrated on March 20th, 2006 at 7:44 pm“Or do you really believe that this doesn’t matter at all? That when papers run their annual stories on who’s speaking where, people don’t notice a big name at a great school?”
JCP2: Look! It’s not just about the relatives–he’s actually serious!
“Whether students and universities should be sensitive to those pressures is another discussion.”
My pressure meter doesn’t go that low….
posted by Bruce Fields on March 20th, 2006 at 8:36 pm_Or do you really believe that this doesn’t matter at all? That when papers run their annual stories on who’s speaking where, people don’t notice a big name at a great school?_
Oh, I can say for certain that it doesn’t matter a whit. The graduation ceremony itself barely matters other than to sell a lot of school paraphernalia and keep the local restaurants happy. Half the graduates won’t even go to graduation, attendance will drop dramatically if it rains or is cold, and hardly anyone will remember what any of the speakers said five minutes after they sit down. At best, it is interesting to see who is on the speaker circuit, but no, it doesn’t “matter.”
posted by Juliew on March 20th, 2006 at 9:45 pmkingman brewster spoke at my graduation. he’s right up there with vartan gregorian, eh?
posted by peter honeyman on March 20th, 2006 at 10:22 pmWhoa, there, Peter. you can throw around Vartan Gregorian all you want, and compare him to the likes of Norman Borlaug if you please, but I will NOT have Kingman Brewster’s name mocked in the blogosphere!
posted by Dale on March 20th, 2006 at 10:59 pmUghh, the arrogance of little kids. I am convinced that the root of all evil is self-importance. gag!
If your were partly engaged in what goes on in the world outside of your own invented drama (actual quote from the League ” My life is like a movie”) you would have stumbled across Amanpour. I’m sure there are plenty of students here at UMich that cannot name the Justices of the Supreme court or even the Secretary of Defense.
posted by murder on March 21st, 2006 at 12:03 amI do think it “matters” to students. Sure, there are students who don’t attend graduation, but many do, at least the undergraduate ones. We are a culture sorely lacking in rites of passage and graduation was one of those for me (both highschool and college). So I do think it “matters”, to some, beyond the importance it has to the Ann Arbor business community (it doesn’t all apply to the A2 business community after all…)…
posted by Transplant on March 21st, 2006 at 8:47 amdale, i’ll see your norman borlaug and raise you a wm. g. bowen. now there’s a commencement speaker’s commencement speaker!
and if i’m lyin’ i’m dyin’: it was kingman brewster — president ford was called away by the fall of saigon.
posted by peter honeyman on March 21st, 2006 at 9:40 amI would have loved to have the Fonz for my commencement address. Anyone see him in Arrested Development? Now THAT’S credentials.
posted by Dave on March 21st, 2006 at 11:29 amdude. amanpour is waaaay to pro-child, and anti-dictator. it’s almost disgusting.
posted by Cold Bacon on March 21st, 2006 at 1:41 pmI fully agree with “Murder”’s posting today. The downfall of American society is, among other things, self-importance. Look at Hollywood.
If these ‘kids’ would watch more than just mtv, vh1, or video games, they might be better adjusted to fit in the real world once they get there! do a quick google on amanpour, and they would realize that she could shed some incredible insight to today’s world events. my graduation speaker was Carole Simpson - a UM grad and ABC World News Tonight weekend anchor. and i DO remember what she said, and she was fantastic. very relatable and very entertaining.
posted by bic on March 21st, 2006 at 2:16 pmWhen I got my B.A. at MSU, we had longtime former president John A. Hannah as speaker. He was past his prime and not a dynamic speaker. When he went on too long, it was a little embarrassing, both because he was struggling, and because a lot of the crowd got hostile.
But that was more than a quarter of a century ago, and I have barely even thought about it since then. I don’t even remember who spoke at any of my other graduations.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on March 21st, 2006 at 3:03 pm“I’m sure there are plenty of students here at UMich that cannot name the Justices of the Supreme court or even the Secretary of Defense.”
“If these ‘kids’ would watch more than just mtv, vh1, or video games, they might be better adjusted to fit in the real world once they get there!”
Well when I was a kid, I had to walk 5 miles in the snow. Uphill both ways. Kids today. No respect.
posted by Daniel Adams on March 21st, 2006 at 3:52 pmdude. just be grateful it’s not Ira Glass. I would have rather WC Fields, myself.
posted by Cold Bacon on March 21st, 2006 at 4:55 pmThe speaker at my commencement was Cathy Guisewhite, who is also a Michigan alum.
posted by A Different Jon on March 23rd, 2006 at 2:29 amOh Jesus–Irving jokes. And bathing suits. And I wonder how I grew up equating female empowerment with neurosis.
I had Hillary and I don’t remember any of it. But my Dad, who hated her and bitched about it ahead of time, was all star struck and thought she was great. All I remember is that we discovered later that there had been no film in the camera so a couple of days later Dad dragged me back to the location of the event to re-don the cap and gown and get my picture taken. I would have just as soon skipped it the first time around, so the replay was a pain in the ass, not to mention a bit embarrasing. But then he had paid most of the tuition….
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on March 23rd, 2006 at 9:15 amI think most students go to graduation ceremonies because their parents make them. That was certainly true in my case.
posted by tom on March 23rd, 2006 at 9:30 amI blew mine off. I was just glad to be done and off to do something else. I don’t remember who the speaker was, but I went to my cousin’s graduation a few years later and Jesse Jackson was the speaker. He was awesome.
posted by OFWinsurgent on March 23rd, 2006 at 9:50 amHow can you even understand Jesse Jackson? He sounds like he has a sock in his mouth at all times.
My parents didn’t “make” me go, but I would no doubt have preferred to skip it. But, yes, they paid most of the bills and would have been disappointed if I didn’t.
I can’t fathom how anyone thinks a commencement speaker is important or matters. Sure, a “name” is cool, but you aren’t likely to remember any damn thing whoever it is says, since it’s mostly boilerplate twaddle. Although maybe the students who got that one speech from Kurt Vonnegut that’s always passed around remember it.
posted by Dave on March 23rd, 2006 at 10:30 amKofi Annan spoke at my graduation (Michigan, AB ‘99). He’s a name, I guess. But trying to understand a Ghanian over the PA system in the Big House is impossible. Moral of the story: if you want a big name, you’ve got to watch what you ask for.
However, strictly using the name metric, I would of preferred Boutros Boutros-Ghali. His name is just so much cooler. But I guess I didn’t graduate the right year for that.
posted by Holy Toledoan on March 23rd, 2006 at 12:31 pmI had Hillary Clinton, too, and she announced the americorps program.
posted by Anna on March 23rd, 2006 at 12:33 pmOh, and she made a joke about how in her generation, 10,000 Maniacs would have been protestors.
posted by Anna on March 23rd, 2006 at 12:34 pmNitpicking, but that speech that got passed around wasn’t Vonnegut.
I’d prefer to skip the school-at-large, even if I’d enjoy the speaker, and just attend engineering’s version if any… but my mom wouldn’t have that, and it’s not gonna kill me, so what the hell.
That said, I don’t know many students who are all gung-ho about commencement ceremonies. Graduation itself, sure, commencement no. I’d rather spend money on something more worthwhile than a cap and gown… maybe a few more drinks at the party afterwards to celebrate / forget the amount of debt I’ve accumulated.
posted by Anonymous on March 23rd, 2006 at 1:13 pmI always saw it attributed to Vonnegut. Who is it?
posted by Dave on March 23rd, 2006 at 1:55 pm“I always saw it attributed to Vonnegut.”
You may want to adjust the skepticism levels up a bit for whichever sources you got that from.
“Who is it? ”
Google has all the answers….
posted by Bruce Fields on March 23rd, 2006 at 3:12 pmThat was years and years ago and it was printed out and passed around the Borders store I used to work at. Who knows who printed it.
In the immortal words of the too-mortal Rodney Dangerfield, “Vonnegut, do you read lips?”
posted by Dave on March 23rd, 2006 at 5:39 pmto the students in the daily article who didn’t recognize your commencement speaker’s name: you are ignoramuses and you should be held back.
i wish our class had gotten ms. amanpour. 2006 doesn’t seem to deserve her.
posted by george on March 24th, 2006 at 3:13 pmI skipped the all school graduations but attended the college graduations. I got my master’s a year after my bachelor’s. The dean of the college was the speaker both times and delivered the exact same speech. For the master’s, I sat onstage next to an English lit prof who was wearing his wife’s PhD gown from Duke and rated each English major who crossed teh stage as “good student”, “bad student.” We later played softball together on a team that always choked. At my brother`s all school graduation, the dentists had the best celebration. The lawyers were the lamest.
posted by d'arcy on March 26th, 2006 at 4:53 pmI wonder if the MFA students know who Andre Codrescu is…maybe being on NPR will make a difference?
posted by Transplant on March 26th, 2006 at 6:46 pmOf course Amanpour is awesome. Ok. I looked her up.
But the fact is, you can be the very best at your job, even an important one like hers, and still have very intelligent, well-informed people not know who you are.
I’m sure I’ll get ripped apart for admitting it, but I am graduating this year, and I was disappointed at first when I heard who would be speaking.
Not because I assumed she was dumb, boring, or a wash-up, but because I simply don’t have a connection to her. I don’t have cable TV, I get my news from a paper, the old-fashined way. When Amanpour was covering the Gulf war, I was not even in elementary school. I’m sure she will give an interesting talk, but I have never argued about her governmental policies to a friend, or voted for her, or marveled about the way she changed technology.
Maybe I’m an arrogant, self-important, uneducated “little kid,” but I wouldn’t have minded hearing a failed democratic presidential nominee, whose 2004 campaign I was emotionally invested in, give a talk to me and my family for free. Or have the founder of a society-changing company tell us what dorm he lived in when he went here. Those are people I have personal connections to, and it’s not that they are better, but I “know” them, so they matter more to me.
And to the thread about whether the commencement speaker’s fame matters: if it didn’t matter to UM and other schools, why DON’T they get Ralph Williams? Why DON’T they just get the dean of one of the colleges? It obviously matters to more than the students.
posted by Nicole on March 31st, 2006 at 8:00 pmAt The Evergreen State College, we had a speaker who was actually in prison–Leonard Peltier. He wrote then sent his speech, and one of the Masters in Native American Studies read it. It had been a warm sunny day, until she got to the podium: the sky got completely overcast and a cool goose-pimply inducing wind began to blow. The speech was very moving, inspiring us to be socially conscious and effective. The sunny weather resumed at the end of the speech. (Honest, I’m not making this up).
Oh, and we walked to bagpipes.
posted by pioneerspirit on April 6th, 2006 at 2:01 am