Editorial: Experience v. inexperience
The need for professional keynote speakers at graduation

April 5, 2006

The countdown to graduation has begun. With just about a month to go until the class of 2006 leaves La Salle behind, signs of their imminent departure are becoming prevalent on campus. Commencement week arrangements have been announced, career nights have come and gone and the Dean’s office has concluded the search for a student to give the commencement speech at graduation.

While noted scholars are awarded honorary degrees at commencement and given minimal time to speak, their speech is hardly the keynote presentation. The practice of having a student give the commencement speech at graduation is a long-standing tradition at La Salle that you will not find at many other schools. The majority of colleges in the country have an invited speaker give a speech as a main element of the graduation ceremony. This invited speaker is usually someone who is distinguished in the field of academics, entertainment, business or politics. The speaker role is also sometimes given to an alumnus who has achieved some high honor. Recent examples include Harvard University having talk show host Conan O’Brian, and Hofstra University inviting author E.L. Doctorow (to some controversy).

The idea behind having an external speaker come to campus is two-fold. The message behind graduation is that this is it. School is over forever. Even for those going on to graduate school, the easy part is behind you and the difficult part is in front of you. Bringing in a speaker who has braved this transition and survived in the face of opposition helps give students hope.

A student speaker has none of this real world experience and can only speak on his or her experience from the previous four years. While this may seem like a good idea and bring a smile to many people’s faces, it should not be the main focus of the ceremony.

The ceremony marks a scary transition that warrants serious reflection from someone who has achieved success; someone who can give advice about how to utilize a college education and expound upon the opportunities it affords.

Keynote speakers receiving honorary degree from the University are much better suited for such a task. The honor being bestowed upon them by the academic institution is typically proof of lifelong devotion to and extraordinary success in a particular field. This added life experience that derives from their expertise grants them insights and wisdom that serves the purposes of the speech better than the limited life experiences of the typical college graduate. The student is almost always restricted, in practice, to discussing his or her collegiate years.

In principle, what La Salle does in contrast is not a bad idea since it allows the students to determine the content of the graduating ceremonies. However, all potential student speakers are screened by a comittee headed by the Dean of Students’ office. Despite the idea that students are controlling what is said, the fact is that the administration is still acting as a gatekeeper, preventing speeches that might be perceived as too negative or too controversial from being given.

Famous speakers at graduation are part of American culture, demonstrated in reality when Hillary Rodham Clinton called out the senator who spoke at her graduation, or in art when Winona Ryder gave a speech in the Gen-X movie Reality Bites. Clinton’s speech contradicted the “get in line” speech Senator Edward Brooke had just given, and Ryder’s fictional sermon addressed the real world problems the students were about to face. It is highly doubtful that either of these speeches would have been approved by the Dean’s office to be given as the student commencement address.

La Salle is one of the few schools in which the honor of the commencement speech is screened by the administration. At the majority of universities, the role of student speaker is given to the valedictorian as a recognition of his or her achievements. When the honor is relegated to a given person regardless of the content of their speech, its value is increased. The school is unable to screen or censor the speech ahead of time and students are still given a voice at graduation. The speaker has the opportunity to discuss topics of more relevance than that he or she remembers the first time that they ate breakfast at the B&G.

It is important that the commencement speech be a work of importance, and not just a self-congratulatory reflection of the past four years. Outside professionals offer a different perspective and valuable knowledge, and they should be given more time to speak to students. Graduation is one of the most important days of a student’s life. The speech should match the magnitude of the event it represents.