We congratulate the University for obtaining Jim Lehrer as this year’s commencement speaker. Lehrer is a well-known news broadcaster who has moderated many presidential debates. It is gratifying to know that we will have a speaker we can not only admire for intellectual achievement but also someone we can brag about to our friends at other schools. While less famous speakers may very well have interesting things to say, let’s face it, the adage holds true: most attendees won’t remember who gave the commencement address. We would like to propose, though, that this is not the full story: a well-known speaker like Lehrer adds some additional excitement and anticipation to a graduation. Moreover, Lehrer is a very fitting choice for the University. His interest in political and social involvement will resonate with the concerns of the student population.
Lehrer is not new to graduation speeches. He has previously spoken at Harvard (2006), U. Penn (2002), Tufts (2001), and Amherst (1999). While Lehrer should prove an eloquent and interesting speaker, some might wonder how much personal interest he will have in his address to us, specifically.
But we don’t need an ultra-personal oration reminding us how we’ll regret our cozy campus experience the minute we enter the “real world.” We simply want a dynamic message that lets graduates forget the hours they’ve been sitting in the sun wearing polyester gowns and maybe think a little deeper about the moment they are living. We look forward to hearing what Lehrer has to say on the war in Iraq, and how he can connect the ceremony on Andrus Field to a greater global context.
We applaud the administration’s efforts and hope that they apply the same priorities when searching for future commencement guests.
A history of recent Wesleyan commencement speakers:
1994 Lowel P. Weicker (Governor)
1995 Charles S. Stone (Journalist)
1996 A. Leo Higginbotham (Judge)
1997 Paul Simon (U.S. Senator)
1998 Oprah Winfrey (Talk show host)
1999 Amartya Kumar Sen (Nobel Prize winner)
2000 Harold Varmus (Nobel Prize winner)
2001 Evelyn Fox Keller (Professor)
2002 Martha Nussbaum (Professor)
2003 Jody Williams (Nobel Prize winner)
2004 Njabulo S. Ndebele (Poet, Activist)
2005 Amy Gutmann (Scholar, President of U. Penn)
2006 John Hope Franklin (Professor)
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