I kinda like that Katie Couric is speaking at my alma mater - Williams College. Topic: how to go from being America's sweetheart to a ratings disaster in 30 days or less!

I kinda like that Katie Couric is speaking at my alma mater - Williams College. Topic: how to go from being America's sweetheart to a ratings disaster in 30 days or less!

I can't believe you didn't mention Bill Clinton at Knox College, my alma mater! Then again, this is probably not too impressive if you don't realize that Knox is a tiny (like, 1000 students) liberal arts college in the middle of a bunch of cornfields in Galesburg, Illinois. We had Stephen Colbert last year and Barack Obama the year before that. Knox is awesome!

perusing the list i found a few that interested me, all with a baseball connection of sorts...
Keith Lockhart at Muskingun College (I assume that's the director of the Boston Pops and not the retired journeyman infielder...)
Yogi Berra, baseball great and star of AFLAC commercials, at St. Louis University
and Willie Randolph, manager of the NY Mets, at Fordham University--can that be right??

Did I read the list correctly? Nearly 700 schools and NOT ONE was able to entice The Hoff (over 9 million albums sold in Germany!) as its speaker?

For shame...

I don't even remember who mine was, 13 years ago. But boy do I wish I graduated from William and Mary in 2004.

Is no one graduating from University of Maryland - College Park, this year? Or have we decided to go without a speaker?

I remember two things from commencement at New York University
1) The guy next to me screaming "yeah" after every speech. Jerk.
2) My parents telling I'll have to pay my students loans without their help.

I don't remember my college graduation speaker, but my high school speaker (Langley, 1975, at Wolf Trap) was the REAL George Allen. My recollection he compared life to football and said something like "Don't fumble." What I remember is that a thunderstorm started right as a rabbi was giving the blessing... "God bless this graduating class" CRASH! FLASH! BOOM!

In retrospect, it may have been an omen.

My college commencement speaker (Syracuse '84) was Dan Rather. What stood out for me was him telling story about his college graduation & waking up hungover on a golf course. Or something like that.
Go Orange!

Hmm...Tony Snow is speaking at my Grad school Alma Mater - Catholic University. I think I had it better when Bob Newhart spoke at my graduation 10 years ago!

My college graduation speaker was incredible. In 2001, UVA got Francis Collins, the director of the Human Genome project and a UVA alum, to speak to the graduating class. I expected a boring talk, as he's a scientist, not an entertainer, but he was hilarious. He exhorted us to "keep fun in our lives." He mentioned Dave Matthews (always a hit in C'ville) and referred to us all being "lit" that morning (in a witty reference to education being described as the lighting of a fire). He described the three universal concerns among sects of the college community: "Sex for the students, athletics for the alumni, and parking for the faculty." To conclude the speech, he picked up a guitar and performed an original song. I have never seen a graduating class wave lighters in the air and ask for an encore, but we did that day.

I don't even know where Daniel Webster College is, but I want to crash graduation just to hear P.J. O'Rourke's speech.

Oooh Quinnipiac University gets Marry Higgins Clark! Lucky!

Wow, I really just spelled her name "Marry."

Randolph's daughter is graduating. Plus, the Mets are a big deal! ;p

I can't remember mine, other than it being a replacement and dreadful, but my younger sister had Estelle Parsons (most people would recognize her as the crazy mom on Roseanne) and she was wonderful.

My graduation speaker was a Chinese art historian. I don't remember his name, but he was very interesting.
My husband, on the other hand, got Prince Charles.

metsfan, mucho thanks. i was wondering about that. as for the mets being a 'big deal' we'll have to respectfully disagree on that, tho' tommy g. (glavine, not gregg) is my fave pitcher.
i didn't go to college but the grad. speaker at my high school, stuttgart american h.s. in stuttgart germany, was the then mayor (or burgermeister) of the city--lord mayor rommel, son of the desert fox. the smartest thing i did that day was getting his autograph on my diploma. the dumbest thing was mixing tequila, beer, and crown royal. thank heavens none of my children ever pulled a stunt like that!

From someone who was graduating from W&M in 2004--Stewart rocked, and made many a parent uncomfortable. Much better than my graduate school speaker last year (the head of the Shakespeare Theatre who was not engaging at all.)

Jon Stewart is very much shorter in person than you think he is...

you missed a big one...

Soledad O'Brien at Cornell...

Perhaps she'll give them all more insight 'into the mind of a madman', some new Rachel Ray recipes, or answer Colbert's thought after a particulary enlightening Bruce Springsteen interview...

"All Soledad did was ask a perfectly legitimate valid question about whether artists should do anything other than entertain us! I've said it before: Popular music should be a series of meaningless cliches strung together by a pleasing melody to help pass the time during long commutes or loveless marriages."

I'm sure the graduates of Cornell are waiting with baited breath...

My boyfriend said he was too hung-over at Yale's commencement so he not sure if he graduated. His parents refused to give him the diploma. His only proof that he's a Yale graduate is alumni magazine.

How did a liberal arts college in the middle of a bunch of cornfields in Galesburg, Illinois get such awesome speakers, and the largest California state university (SDSU), from which I graduated, get some lame-o local real estate goon? I don't even remember who he was, he was so lame.

Loyola College, 1985: Jeane Kirkpatrick, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Fascinating woman, dull speaker. God rest her soul (she died in December).

And don't you dare diss Betty White. She's a goddess.

Actually, I have a friend who gets the alumni magazine even though he never attended Yale. He tried to cancel it but they won't stop sending it to him!

I attended a graduation (Villanova University) where Caroll Spinney was the speaker. No idea who he is? He's the guy behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. A lot of students complained that a puppeteer was speaking at their $100,000-per-head graduation, but I swear, when he stepped up to the mike and said in Big Bird's voice, "Hello kids. I was your first teacher, and I am SO proud of you." there was not a dry eye in the house. I'm getting misty just remembering it. He also shared the podium with Oscar, (the actual puppet) who got in some really good barbs.

Katie Couric is bull crap.

Ps Liz -- the Chronicle of Higher Education is your source.

Betty White is a class act.

Also, I note that Gloria Steinem is speaking at my alma mater, Smith College, AGAIN. She was my graduation speaker in 1995 AND my mother's graduation speaker in 1971. I bet she'll give the same speech, too.

I campaigned for Judith "Miss Manners" Martin, myself.

That Carroll Spinney story is sweet.

Tavis Smiley, of PBS & NPR, gave a wonderful talk at the IU Bloomington ceremonies (2). It was quite inspirational, as he had started at IU some 20/30+ years earlier with only a suitcase and $35 in his pocket when he arrived on campus.

Liz, I'm a day behind, but had to post b/c I too am a fellow hokie and one who missed graduation due to the traditional hokie hangover. Well, kind of. We all missed the general univeristy commencement in Lane Stadium, delivered by whomever was gov in 2002 (no judgement, I'm not from VA). The stadium was under construction so we couldn't enter through the player's tunnel, which was really the only motivation for going to that 9 AM ceremony anyway. Went to my in-major ceremony, where my name was called and my degree was given to me and where the both the girl in front of me and the guy behind me kept stepping out of line to throw up. That was actually way better than our speaker who was some NBC camerman fresh from Afghanistan and whose "speech" consisted of why the Middle East was awful, supplemented by his pictures of maimed (sp?) citizens. O, happy day! I happily returned to my hangover when he finished.

apologies for the long-winded post above, but i had to add that the carroll spinney story was touching. sounds like WDC can recall the entire event, which is the mark of a great speaker.

Oprah.... We. Speak. Your. Name.

and that name is...

HUNGRY!

I can't remember who my commencement speaker was at William and Mary in 1998, but I believe that he was later disgraced by some scandal. I got my grad degree from High Point University a few weeks ago and Bill Cosby told us to stop smoking pot, get a job and don't move back in with our parents because they really don't like us that much. It was a great speech and all 700 graduates got to shake his hand after we received our diplomas.