Dissing College Commencement Speakers a Bad Trend

I love the author's use of the word "nincompoop". LOL.

Apparently, a very few speak for the many:

May 23, 2014

On college campuses all over the country, the classes of 2014 have distinguished themselves like none before — mainly by chasing away their commencement speakers. Students at Smith College scared off Christine Lagarde, the first female managing director of the International Monetary Fund. They circulated a petition claiming she was a poor choice because IMF programs in developing countries are "imperialist" and "patriarchal." At Rutgers University, where former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been scheduled to speak, students and faculty who opposed her role in the Bush administration kicked up so much dust that Rice decided not to come.

The most impressive display of student hubris, however, may have come from Haverford College, where a group presented former University of California at Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau with a list of nine demands to meet before he could speak and receive an honorary degree. They wanted Birgeneau, who drew criticism for his role in shutting down campus protests in 2011, to apologize for his actions and write a letter to the Haverford community explaining what he learned from the incident. When he demurred, a former Princeton president instead took to the podium and called students out as "arrogant" and "immature."

It only takes a few self-righteous student nincompoops to unfairly represent the larger, mostly indifferent nincompoop population. Less than a fifth of Smith's student body actually signed the petition protesting Lagarde. Objectors at Haverford, according to most reports, amounted to about 50 or so.

The only demand that should be made on a U.S. commencement speaker is that he or she speak English and not speak longer than five minutes. No gasbags allowed.

As for Rutgers, a campus of roughly 40,000 students, only a few hundred students and faculty were fired up enough to mount a protest against Rice. (Local news coverage suggested many students weren't entirely sure who Rice was.) This, of course, is the school that in 2011 booked MTV "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi as a campus speaker and paid her more than that year's commencement speaker, Nobel-winning author Toni Morrison. Snooki inveighed upon students to "study hard but party harder."

Well, that's better than getting a scolding a la Haverford.

Let's face it, every campus has its share of students who can't quite comprehend that extreme political correctness is often born of the same intolerance and anti-intellectualism as standard-issue bigotry. And while that jeremiad provides compelling commencement speech content — appealing to steely conservatives and self-loathing liberals alike — there's nothing terribly original about lecturing young people about "the real world."

Soon enough, everyone figures out that you cannot go around customizing your experiences and interactions to conform to your worldview. Soon enough, we all encounter our first boss or landlord or blowhard seatmate on a plane and realize that life does not work like on-demand TV or Internet ads. We're not handed situations based on our established likes and dislikes; we get what's available.

Really, that should be the takeaway from graduation day: Take what's there. Graduates should march, sit, listen, collect their diplomas and then toss their mortarboards up in the air and go get drunk.

Because here's the thing about commencement speeches: They're not about the graduates. They're about the speakers.

They're about Jill Abramson making headlines for telling Wake Forest grads that in the face of rejection or disappointment, "show what you are made of" — just days after her firing as editor of The New York Times. They're about appearance fees that sometimes reach six figures. They are about the PR value to the college for landing a big name. They're about public figures trying to secure something like the near-religious reverence given to David Foster Wallace's address at Kenyon College in 2005 or George Saunders' remarks at Syracuse last year.

Which is why the wisest counsel for new graduates isn't "don't be so arrogant" but rather "take what you can get." Marvel at what's right in front you. And if that happens to be the head of the IMF, get over yourself and be a gracious host. No matter what your politics, you could do a whole lot worse for company. And, believe me, someday very soon, you will.

Meghan Daum is an essayist and novelist in Los Angeles.

]mdaum@latimescolumnists.com

Twitter @meghan_daum

Taken from: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-oped-daum-0523-20140523,0,4942724.story

Should a few have such power over the rest of the student body? :?:

 

Squeaky wheel gets the grease, it's the American Way.

 

i agree with the students generally voicing thier position. its thier day. they get one day of graduation....they should voice their displeasure. they are the customers.

 

Totally agree with you and it says something awesome about the up and coming generation and something sad about ours. They are speaking out against people who do evil shit. I could write pages upon pages on how the IMF has strangled the financial life out poor third world countries like Jamaica by giving insane loans they can never hope to pay back because of insidious interest rates and clauses. So kudos to them for not wanting to hear that fraud give a lame speech that they themselves don't even believe in.
Are we really gonna call it pc for kids to not want to hear from people who have literally and figuratively had a hand in destroying their future as well as so many others.
Again kudos to them for speaking up.

And Book the vocal minority ALWAYS speaks for the many. It happened during women's suffrage, during the civil rights movement, during protests for Vietnam. Most people are ok with the suffering of others as long as they aren't suffering it's called "minding your own business" which is pretty much in line with the Republican right wing mantra of rugged individualism so you should be a ok with this.

 

well stated......

i got into a debate with a conservative about voting. he took on conservative talk show ideas that property owners be should the only ones allowed to vote and he gave his reasons.

i responded "naw only military and veterans should. not the rest of america."

he had a confused look.

then i responded "property owners never sacrifice for this country"

he looked stupid then.

i asked.."doesnt feel good to be discriminated against does it?"

he couldnt respond....

 

We're ok with discrimination until we're the ones being discriminated against.
You should have also thrown in that the more property you own the more your vote counts. So I should get a vote for every acre I own, so his vote becomes virtually useless compared to those with money. I hate how people can be so damn short sighted. Bet his ass would complain about how unfair things are then.

 

I remember when I was about 16, I was attending my cousin's graduation from the University Of Florida in Gainesville. He was getting his degree in medicine. The speaker was a Professor Of Medicine with a lot of professional credits to back up his experience. He was a pleasant man in his late-60's from Edinburgh, Scotland. He gave a wonderful speech. When it was over, he received a standing ovation. After the ceremony, I saw him and I walked over to meet him. I asked him about his experience in the field of medicine. He told me that he had been in this field of study for decades. Before I could ask him for further questions, my mom came up and interrupted the conversation we were having. A commencement speech(high school and college) is all about the students who have completed a long scholastic journey and are now entering a professional one. It is about the students and not the speaker. The speaker's reputation and credentials speak for themselves and their politics and views should be left out. A Rabbi or a Bhuddist Monk would give a better commencement speeches than politicians.

 

i knew he never served in the military so my "reasoning" kicked him out the door.
he soon after stated "i got the point"

i should have added "that if a vet applies for a job....a civvie that never served have to give up his job to him".

 

Can't help but try and pigeonhole me, can you TDK? :smt009

Why don't you stop with the digs at me, and we can just agree to disagree on most topics. Sound good?

 

So you're not a right wing conservative? Sorry your posts suggest otherwise

 

No, once again, I will reiterate to you, I am an Independent.

Just because I question the things that mostly fall on the liberal side (let's face it, most of the politicians and such at the moment ARE liberal) still does not automatically make me a right wing conservative.

I blindly follow NO party. I question everyone.

 

Firstly if you think most politicians are liberal then you aren't paying attention. Look at the house and tell that to people whose "entitlements" have been cut to the point they can barely survive. Question all you want I encourage it but after reading your posts for years you seem to only question or criticize "liberal" agendas. I could be wrong but its what I see .

 

Well, I'm surrounded by shitty Democrats in the "great" state of IL, so forgive me for not giving them a free pass when I see on a near daily basis how they're f-ing over the residents of this state at every opportunity.

All Democrats or all Republicans are NOT the answer. If there isn't a good balance between the two, the citizenry suffers.

 

im sorry but i dont see where tdk was coming at you personally, unless i missed it somewhere. he and i was talking about extreme conservatives....not you personally.

 

No disagreement there It does need to be fair and balanced only difference is one side does absolutely nothing for the electorate. Say what you will about the left but at the very least they try to get funding for schools and they feed the poor. The right would give the entire thing to big business if they could. Fuck the everyday person.

 

joe the plumber (in referrence to the cali shooting this past weekend) stated "your dead kids dont trump my constitutional rights to own a gun"
what a good guy.
im sure he will not be doing any speaking at any college

 

Where are you getting that from?

 

out his ass.

 

mofos show how tuff they are on "their" rights until their kid get hurt then yall want reasonable actions.

to show how dumb you guys are... a gun shop owner got death threats from gun rite advocates because he wanted to sell the "safe gun". it recognizes only the owner of that gun. it will not shoot unless its the owner.

the nra is against it and the gun shopowner who was selling it got death threats.

justify how your rites are trampled

 

I like the idea of the "safe gun." Back in the 90's one Smith & Wesson had developed one. But people complained that it wasn't effective in a stressfire situation. Well, I think it is a good idea because if a child picked up a "safe gun," it won't fire in that child's hand. Why not make a safe gun grip for all makes and models of firearms?