At the Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism on April 11, moderator Jonathan Tisch (A '76) asked honored guest journalist Katie Couric about her upcoming stint as a commencement speaker.
"I believe you're going to be across the river this May," he said to Couric during the forum.
Couric looked at the audience and said, "At BU, sorry! They asked, you didn't!"
The university last month announced this year's commencement speaker, Charles Vest, president emeritus of MIT and current president of the National Academy of Engineering.
While some students may have been wondering why Couric wasn't asked to speak, more may be wondering about the selection process for commencement speakers in general.
"The president of Tufts selects the commencement speaker in concert with the trustees," Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler told the Daily in an email.
The honorary degree committee is made up of six of the university's Board of Trustees, alongside President Bacow, who serves ex officio. The committee approves candidates for honorary doctorates from Tufts, Thurler said.
Tufts had its first commencement ceremony in 1916, when noted politician, editor and activist Hamilton Holt, a white man who was a co−founding member of the NAACP, spoke. There have been a bevy of notable speakers over the years including educator and entertainer Bill Cosby, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson — who spoke only six months before President John Kennedy was assassinated — and Ms. Magazine founder Gloria Steinem. And although President Bacow told the Daily that Vest has a "fabulous wit" and "will give a memorable speech," some students remain concerned that they were not involved in the selection process.
"There are a thousand ways to involve students and they chose not to," senior Ayda Wondemu said. "It's not about who it is, about the person, so much as the process. What they're teaching us is that through your life, you're going to have to shut up and take it. I doubt he would be speaking if there would have been a different process, but [even if so], at least we would have chosen him."
At Smith College, on the other hand, students are given the opportunity to vote on their commencement speaker. The process begins with a committee of board members, students and trustees, who develop a list of speakers, and the student body votes afterwards.
When it was announced last year that Professor and former Provost Sol Gittleman was going to give the 2010 commencement address, there was conversation on campus about whether or not it was preferred to have someone from the community who knows Tufts students, like Gittleman, or whether, as is customary, to invite a well−known personality to campus.
Adam Weldai (LA '10) told the Somerville News after Commencement last year that he found Gittleman to be a good choice.
"He's one of us," Weldai said. "That's what made the speech so special."
Senior Peter Day said that while bringing a well−known personality to campus will be exciting for many, the idea of their celebrity being the main draw cheapens the tradition.
"The graduation speech is a tradition turned marketing ploy," Day said. "Some wealthy person to tell us it will all be okay. I'm sure whatever [Vest] has to bestow upon us will be polite conventional reassurance, and I'm confident that I will leave with a smile on my face."
Vest exists in the gray area between someone personally familiar, like Gittleman, and a celebrity whose story is well−known.
"When you bring in Lance Armstrong [who spoke at Commencement in 2006], you already know the narrative, in that he had such a huge challenge to overcome," Wondemu said. "The students would want to hear what he had to say. Whether you have a job for next year or not, you're still facing a challenge. Here, we are meeting an unknown."
Another factor is that Tufts does not pay commencement speakers to come to the ceremony. Rutgers University, for instance, is paying author Toni Morrison $30,000 to come speak at its commencement this year.
"The fact that we do not pay commencement speakers helps ensure that our speakers will come to Tufts with a genuine commitment to addressing our graduates," Thurler said.
Regardless of the process, commencement is an exciting day for seniors, in which they are surrounded by loved ones and by the community they have built at Tufts. For some seniors, the speaker doesn't matter so much as the event itself.
"I can't say I have any feelings at all about the commencement speaker," senior Roxie Salamon Abrams said. "I honestly haven't thought much about it. I'm just excited to be graduating."
