This year the speaker at Last Chance Community College was someone from the board of trustees, who tried to present his life as a rags-to-riches, you-can-too story. It had some incongruities, like when described how little money he had after college, and then added "then the bank loaned me a million dollars."
Wait where are you listening to Gates speak on Saturday?
Oklahoma University. Where are you listening to Gates speak on Saturday?
He is speaking at the NDSU graduation ceremony on Saturday Morning. Isn't the OU one on Friday?
Friday is tomorrow. Today is Tuesday.
My orientation speaker at grad school was a state senator. A year later, I was working horrible job (that I ended up leaving after two weeks) as a union organizer and was standing around with some other folks who were doing the same, and an SUV pulls up and selfsame senator gets out and I say to this one guy "oh hey look it's Barack Obama" and he says "who?" I think I will tell this story forever even though it is not exactly the greatest story.
Jesus, Moby, do we have to have Rebecca Black explain the order of the days of the week to you again?
Huh, looks like I won't be hearing him after all, unless we go to the University-wide commencement tonight. I suppose the one tomorrow is the engineering commencement, and my in-laws are mixed up about who is speaking.
Take good notes, CJB.
I hadn't actually planned to attend. I will probably read the speech later.
I can't remember who spoke at my graduation. Or the graduation the year before. Maybe neb does.
I do remember there was some kind of talk from John Mearsheimer at my graduation, but I don't think he was the main commencement speaker. He gave what I remember as a somewhat right-of-center talk that concluded that the Iraq war wasn't, all things considered, as great as ponies and rainbows, and which my grandmother remembers as a communist diatribe against GW Bush.
I was looking forward to my graduation speaker, but nobody in the entire basketball stadium could hear a single word he said. Very uncomfortable situation.
My commencement speaker last year was the outgoing governor of California. I managed to avoid having to listen to him talk, but still had to move to the side to get out of the way of his escape limo.
My commencement speaker was President George Herbert Walker Bush. Lots of people, including me, wore little broccoli boutonnières on their gowns.
14: That's going to make me chuckle all day. What an image!
When I graduated lo those two years ago there was an overall commencement speaker at a campus-wide event that -- as it didn't involve the awarding of degrees -- nobody went to (I think it was Mike Judge), and then, at the actual graduation for our sub-college, the provost or some shit. I'm sure it was all very important. My soon-to-be-current institution rolls quite deep with the surprise commencement guests and speakers and so forth, so I'll be looking forward to that in five years or so.
We had Jonathan Kozol for undergrad. He gave a rousing talk on education reform, and my father sat stonily staring into space instead of clapping. We got to have a big fight about it later. Dad's point was that it's rude for someone to get up and say how privileged we all are when, according to him, my Dad thinks my excellent education was a product of him having moved our family to districts where we were always the poorest, so as to benefit from rich-people schools.
For my MA, we had Geraldine Ferraro, who was rude as fuck and made some racist comments. A few people clapped when she finished, but she was a very poor choice.
I have no recollection of who my commencement speaker was.
d Dick Cavett, already a washed-up actor and TV host in 1984. His speech was sufficiently insulting to the women in our class that one member of the graduating class wrote an op-ed about it that launched a successful media career in feminist and post-feminist pontificating.
I had David Brinkley (1992), and I'm pretty sure he was at least two drinks past tipsy by the time he took the stage.
Had him for what? And just how drunk was he?
My commencement speaker was MLK III, but the speech was weeks before graduation and I missed it. Maybe it was called something other than commencement speeech but at any rate only college folks spoke at the ceremonies I went to.
I get my master's tomorrow; speaker is a prominent far-left-by-US-standards Congressperson.
I'm typing this on my new Kindle, which for text browsing purposes is no worse than a smartphone.
Kofi annon spoke at my college grad, 1999.
No more mastervetting to grad school.
28: hey, we don't know that. He could have several more jizz-soaked years of a PhD program ahead.
Gates is speaking up a storm. He was at Western Washington a week or so ago.
26: Did you ever find out who he really was?
Presumably the Kevorkian way upthread was the euthanasia guy, not Francois? I was looking for his remix of This Charming Man earlier on and here it is.
YouTube is being crappy this evening (Blogger was down earlier in the week). All the clouds seem to be stalked by the FAIL at the moment.
I don't remember who spoke at my undergrad commencement, although I did go to it. I am also graduating with a masters this weekend; the speaker at the university commencement on Sunday morning that I am not intending to go to is apparently Toni Morrison. I don't think there's any prominent speaker at the smaller ceremony for just my program that I am intending to go to on Sunday afternoon.
This is also apparently the first time in many years that Rutgers is even having a university-wide commencement ceremony, and they're really trying to talk it up.
Anyway, I graduated with a masters and look what it has done for me.
We're gaining degrees up in here like a convection oven. Congratulations to you as well, Masteofiller.
OT The boss of a French 'security' firm made up of ex DGSE (French CIA) paramlitary and armed forces special forces types was killed in Benghazi where he was overseeing local operations. The French authorities are saying that any implication that they may be involved with this firm or its operations in Libya are lies, lies.
I didn't go to any ceremony in grad school. I also never picked up my diploma, since they sent me an email telling me it was available months after I had moved away. Hopefully this won't lead to comical bureaucratic problems down the road.
Congrats to teo and Minivet, masters of your respective domains.
If I'd done a two year program, I'd be thinking about whether to go to commencement right now.
If I were running a commencement ceremony for people who finished a two year program, I'd be pissed about the people who still haven't made up their mind about attending the ceremony or not.
Oh yeah and I didn't go to my B.A. graduation because I was at a school of 50,000 people and I don't even know what they do about that.
My favorite memory of my MSW graduation is that they asked us sort of emphatically not to applaud after our friends crossed the stage because it would take too long, but somehow the idea spread through the crowd to clap once, in unison, after each name was read. It was very silly and kind of sweet. I had a lot of good friends in my class, and sometimes it makes me a bit sad that I fled town immediately after graduating and lost that network, but Chicago just never said "you're home!' to me. (Austin did. New York kind of says "like it or not, you seem to belong here.")
Elizabeth Dole. Near the end of her speech, she said something like "And I have one more thing to tell you" and the crowd erupted in applause.
Oh yeah and I didn't go to my B.A. graduation because I was at a school of 50,000 people and I don't even know what they do about that.
At my undergrad state school, they say "Now everyone graduating with and ENGLISH degree stand up! Now sit down. Now everyone graduating with a SPANISH degree stand up!" No walking across a stage.
33: if tradition held, no outside speaker spoke at your undergrad commencement, and no honorary degrees were awarded. Kinda nice tradition, actually.
I didn't do the ceremony for either of my Oxford things, but I did at Glasgow. Which involved Latin, and some dude whacking you with a velvet hat, another one garroting you with a hood, and then someone gave you a scroll. I was so overwhelmed by the experience I couldn't be bothered doing it again.
46: At my school, I think it was "Now everyone in the College of Arts and Science stand up." But, I may be remembering wrong.
my high school graduation speaker at an expensive all-girls new england boarding school was... drumroll... a woman whose claim to fame was having been in one of the free willy movies. (it was not actually a very posh or academically prominent new england boarding school. it did, however, have horses, which was all i cared about when making the decision at age 12.) undergrad was whoever was governor of virginia at the time - wish i'd been paying attention if it was warner. grad school - don't know, already employed and uninclined to take vacation time for ceremonies so skipped it all.
I've only gone to the graduation at the community college where Lee teaches the one time there was an actual Cabinet member speaking (and not Elaine Chao, whom I also saw talking about how great the job market was for the class of '03, I guess, which it wasn't) but it was very sweet to see how excited everyone got, especially about the non-traditional students. There was lots of clapping, airhorns, and so on.
49: It may have been that. I don't actually remember. I didn't technically graduate until the following December, so I was with the audience on behalf of my friends, and didn't attend my own ceremony. Go Blue!
Oh, and my high school graduation had anti-abortion protesters with disgusting fetus photos and everything! An alumna who'd gone on to be a local mayor was our speaker, and the pro-life group decided that because she hadn't explicitly banned abortion within city limits or some shit that she was unacceptably pro-choice. The teachers were upset because she'd never finished college, making her a bad example for all of us. And of course, really what they were upset about was that she wasn't all that far in the closet, but no one felt they could say that to a bunch of innocent teen girls, I think.
Which involved Latin, and some dude whacking you with a velvet hat, another one garroting you with a hood, and then someone gave you a scroll.
The gay bar discussion is on the other thread.
I've been trying to remember who my commencement speaker was this entire thread and I'd even managed to half-convince myself that I did remember his name. Then I googled to see if I could confirm that, and instead I got "Unlike most colleges and universities,xxxxx imports no Commencement speaker for the College ceremonies". Memory is a funny thing.
I'm on a bus on my way to the 15th reunion for my master's program. I don't remember who spoke at my (university-wide) commencement. Tomorrow, though, there's an alumni event at which Tom Vi/sack will be speaking. And on which I will be passing.
For undergrad, we had Jill Ker Conway. Before the speech, a lot of people were complaining that we didn't have a bigger name, and I argued back that what mattered was that the person have genuinely interesting things to say. Then she gave the most platitudinous graduation speech I've ever heard, and I went to a Midwestern public high school.
56.1: I was hoping he'd do better, campaign-wise, so that I could drive by his old house and say, "That's where the president grew up." I have no idea why I'd enjoy that, but I would.
My high school graduation commencement speaker was Jack Anderson. His speech was all anecdotes about his various tangles with Nixon, Carter and the current President, Reagan. He despised Nixon and Carter, but liked Reagan. Most of all he seemed very pleased with himself. I guess it was less boring than the typical graduation speech, because he didn't bother with giving any advice.
Sorry About the Job Market, Job, but hey: at least a tent didn't fall on your family.
My undergrad commencement speaker was Cornell West, who is, of course, fabulous, and who I hadn't yet heard enough by that point for his style to become schticky for me. Our outgoing college president also gave a speech, the shoutingly loud subtext of which was "I HAVE SPENT ABSOLUTELY NO TIME OR ENERGY ON THIS SPEECH AND INSTEAD STUCK RANDOM SECTIONS OF ALREADY EXISTING SPEECHES TOGETHER. I WISH THAT THIS WHOLE THIS WAS OVER ALREADY."
59: Skin care tips would be appropriate in that case.
My undergrad commencement speaker was Cornell West, who is, of course, fabulous
You didn't let him stand in the way of that sublime and funky diploma that you craved, did you?
My undergrad commencement speaker was one of the Warners, either Mark or John. I can't remember in part because the entire ceremony was inaudible, thanks in part to the institution's at times self-defeating deference to Jeffersonian tradition, which leads the university to hold the shindig on a flat, narrow strip of grass surrounded by brick buildings on all four sides—a terrible venue for speeches.
62,3: Pedant away. It's the only way I might someday learn.
I know it's become something of a tradition to mock the internet identified excesses of West's memoir, but, in case you ever get the chance, he is absolutely one of the best public speakers that you will ever hear.
Scottish universities elect their Rector, so our graduation speech was the then University rector, Pat Kane. Purveyor of tepid jazz funk, and wannabe lefty firebrand. If I recall, he called all the academic administrators arseholes for not standing up to the government over the ending of the student grant, and walked out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Kane
51: the graduation at my (large, public) university was a bit like that. I didn't go to commencement at my community college because I was transferring, as opposed to commencing. I hear they got the former governor one year, though. (He's an alum, although he neither graduated nor transferred, having shortly after starting his studies found success, found steroids and therefore found himself no longer in need of a student visa.)
For undergrad, we had Alfred Uhry. He wrote the play "Driving Miss Daisy." Worst. speaker. ever. He had nothing useful to say and tried to make jokes out of nothing. For example, the tassel on his hat fell into his mouth while he was speaking and he said, "I'm eating my tassel. HAHAHAHAHA!!!" For law school I think we had a state representative.
We had a sitting cabinet secretary for my grad school commencement. A legitimate superstar of his field prior to becoming the Secretary of Something.
And, weirdly, some random professor from our own school for undergrad.
I got my undergrad at a right-wing, fundamentalist Christian university (2003). The commencement speaker was Liz Cheney. Before she spoke, the president of the university invited all assembled to applaud the Bush administration and the fantastic job they were doing, which they dutifully did. I was so happy to be getting the fuck out of that place on that very day that I couldn't even get that angry.
The speech itself was generic and lot less offensive than you would expect, given the speaker. All about 'character' and crap like that. Very Bill Bennetesque. Yawn.
William F Buckley, Jr, who was a snore. The best line in the speech was a very pessimistic quote from Whittaker Chambers.
My sister's graduation speaker was Reagan, who was in fact a great communicator. She got married on campus that same weekend - my mother had the chutzpah to invite RR and Nancy to the wedding (what the heck, they'd be around, right?). But they never even responded.
My sister's graduation speaker was Reagan, who was in fact a great communicator. She got married on campus that same weekend - my mother had the chutzpah to invite RR and Nancy to the wedding (what the heck, they'd be around, right?). But they never even responded.
If he had been a truly great communicator, he would have had the grace to at least respond.
68 actually sounds much, much better than average.
My high school outside speaker was Willie Brown. Also, one of the student speakers announced he was going to enter the priesthood.
The high school band played at graduation every year, so I got to hear four years' worth of student speakers, the absolute worst of which gave a long, rambling speech about the Gordian Knot. So long, so rambling, and so awful was his speech, that I still sort of cringe at the very mention of said knot.
My school always got incredibly interesting people, like scientists, liberation theologists, and Dave Barry (back when he was still funny). I think it's because they had a student committee do it, who took the job relatively seriously.
I'm waiting for Cryptic Ned to write up a long, rambling Gordian Knot speech.
I quite like the sound of this famous-person-giving-a-bad-speech tradition you people have. I didn't book myself a graduation ceremony, but a while ago C reached a level where he could do graduations and I would do it if he would graduate me. He won't though, bastard.
I think my college graduation speaker was Barbara Ehrenreich; whoever she was speaking for, she was good.
When did leis become a standard for graduation ceremonies? And how far away from the Pacific does the standard go?
OT: Has this been posted here yet? High school student challenges Rep. Michele Bachmann to debate on the Constitution.
Yay, gutsy teenagers!
81: Awesome! As they say.
I don't recall the commencement speaker at my college graduation. I've finally just googled, assuming that I'd find my response would be, "Oh ... yeah. Right, that's right."
It was Lord Carrington, Secretary-General of NATO. Really?? I have no memory of that. Weird. Not to mention: who? What? He's no Barbara Ehrenreich, I tell you what.
My dog is pretty stupid, even for a dog, but I'd bet she could beat Michelle Bachman in a debate over the Constitution.
David McCollough. Boring. Highlights: two friends and I got to open for him, doing the Class History, a comic review of the last four years (one and a half of which I had missed, being a transfer student). Also, it was raining, and my grandfather reportedly stripped down to his undershirt to wring out his dress shirt, then put it back on in the middle of the speech.
Apparently Michelle Bachmann used to be a lawyer .. for the IRS. I was about to say that she might not be as embarrassing on the Constitution (when pressed, that is) as any number of other Republicans, but it might be that an IRS lawyer isn't quite the same as a Constitutional lawyer, so.
I never went to any of mine. I remember being on campus the day of Commencement the year I got my Masters and seeing a bunch of my friends in gowns lined up near Mathematics and asking them what was up.
My wife's PhD they had Gertrude Himmelfarb which we felt was an insult. My youngest's BA they had Miss Manners who was at least amusing. Her Senior Recital coincided with May Day. Drinks in the gallery before the Maypole were a much better tradition than Commencement speeches.
Judith Martin is a surprisingly engaging speaker. She gave a talk at my department once -- Philosophy dept. -- and it was unclear why this was so, but a good time was had by all.
if tradition held, no outside speaker spoke at your undergrad commencement, and no honorary degrees were awarded. Kinda nice tradition, actually.
That does sound like a nice tradition, but it definitely did not hold. I looked it up and the speaker was Soledad O'Brien, which sounds about right. This year it's Rudy Giuliani.
The only speeches I can remember from my graduation were delivered by students.
88 -- not speakers at the actual commencement, though. Or honorary degrees. I just looked it up; I was about to stop my annual donation in protest.
I have no idea who spoke at my not-graduation event before graduation, probably because I spent the entire month before graduating college too drunk to see.
89: Weird. I don't remember those at all.
I'm with 89: the only speech I "remember" was the Latin one, delivered by a sometime friend-acquaintance. He was quite eloquent, with the gestures and the facial expressions to demonstrate whatever it was he was saying.
I've mentioned them here before, actually. There was the one by the guy who was founding a circus and the one by the classics major, Anne Pr/tz, whose speech was weirdly conservative and which referred to "champagne and bonbons".
There was a third, too, but it was neither memorably good nor memorably bad.
I spent the entire month before graduating college too drunk to see
I got popped in the eye with a champagne cork at our party the night before graduation. The entire month previous had not been like that, but that night we did kind of go overboard. I had no black eye or anything, though: maybe it had been the previous weekend.
93: Whoa. I really have no memory whatsoever of that. I'm starting to think maybe I slept through it all?
That speech may have stuck in my mind because I was already disposed to find the speechifyer annoying.
65 I know it's become something of a tradition to mock the internet identified excesses of West's memoir, but, in case you ever get the chance, he is absolutely one of the best public speakers that you will ever hear.
I've probably unwittingly missed several such opportunities; I tend to get so burned out on the talks that I have to go to that I never take the opportunity to go hear interesting people outside my field. I should try to change that, because I often enjoy it when I do.
I have been in line behind him at the bank a few times, though, which about as close to a brush with celebrity as I ever get.
OT: How odd. Does John Quiggin read unfogged or something? This seems unlikely; yet were we not just talking about this?
It certainly couldn't be a coïncidence.
It seems like it might be a coïncidence. And yet. Maybe I'll read the comments over there!
I like Emerson's new pseudonym. I wonder what prompted the change.
Speaker at mine was Alex Haley. I recall it being OK, but had expected better. Was reading his Wikipedia page and although I knew he had done a lot of interesting Playboy interviews, did not know that he did the very first one which was with Miles Davis. Reprinted here.
My second's graduation is tomorrow, but like my first she chose not to attend. This seems to be deeply disappointing to my parents even though they would not have attended, anyway.
Good luck to her regardless of whether or not she skipped out on the speechification.
Most likely plan would have her continuing her education very near your workplace starting some time next year.
Awesome! As they say.
The kids on your lawn?
Mustard greens make me kind of gassy.
I had someone completely forgettable for my BA graduation, and given that they've canceled my college's winter commencement it's highly unlikely that I'll attend the ceremony for my PhD. My mom is buying me my robes anyway :).
I just looked up who my school has had recently as a commencement speaker, in case they switched to all evil Republicans since my day, and I can now demonstrate the utter truth of my statement in 77. This year's speakers include the canonical name that completes the sentence "WHO WANTS TO SEX _______?"
not speakers at the actual commencement, though. Or honorary degrees. I just looked it up; I was about to stop my annual donation in protest.
Fair enough. I don't think I actually went to the event with the speech.
||
Majid Movahedi, 30, is scheduled to be rendered unconscious in Tehran's judiciary hospital at noon on Saturday while Ameneh Bahrami, his victim, drops acid in both his eyes, her lawyer said.
I'm very marginally pro...5 years for assault isn't enough
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110: So nice that Ogged is speaking at a graduation.
Chris Matthews spoke at my undergrad. He bookended the platitudes section with a great story about being attacked by a black mamba.
Grad school ceremonies was a mid to upper level NASA bureaucrat who managed not to use majesty of space and nobility of exploration in an uplifting fashion. At the reception afterwards my father cornered my program director and explained at length how much better Chris Matthews was.