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University Names Commencement Speakers
The founder of Teach for America, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and the secretary of commerce are among those who will speak at this year’s commencement exercises, the university announced Monday.
Beginning on Thursday, May 15th, Ana Botin, executive chairman of Banco Banesto, the fourth-largest bank in Spain, will speak to students at Senior Convocation in McDonough Arena at 2:00 p.m.
On Friday morning at 7:45 a.m., Gen. Dennis Reimer, former chief of staff of the U.S. army, will then address students graduating from the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps at the ROTC Commissioning Ceremony in Gaston Hall. At 11:00 a.m., Kenneth Chenault, chairman and CEO of the American Express Company, will speak at the McDonough School of Business MBA Commencement Ceremony in McDonough Arena. And at 2:30 p.m., Jane Lubchenco, a distinguished professor of zoology at Oregon State University and past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, will speak at the commencement ceremony for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences held at McDonough Arena.
On Saturday, Carlos Gutierrez, secretary of commerce and former chairman of the board and CEO of the Kellogg Company, will address students on Healy Lawn for the MSB Commencement Ceremony at 9:00 a.m. At noon, Wendy Kopp, CEO and Founder of Teach for America, will speak at the commencement ceremony for Georgetown College. Kopp started the corps as an undergraduate student at Princeton University in 1989, which has now grown to employ 5000 members in the past year.
Carolyn Clancy, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, will then speak at the commencement ceremony of the School of Nursing and Health Studies at 3:00 p.m. Then, at 6:00 p.m., Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned, chairperson of The Qatar Foundation, will speak at the commencement ceremony of the School of Foreign Service.
On Sunday at 11:15 a.m., Ambassador Mark Dybul (COL ’85, MED ’92), the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, will address students at the commencement ceremony for the Medical School commencement ceremony. At 2:00 p.m., Joel Klein, chancellor for the New York City Department of Education, will round off the weekend by serving as the speaker for the commencement ceremony of the Law Center. Klein previously served as visiting and adjunct professor at the Law Center.
You'd think we could get somebody good like one of the Clintons or something.
I am very disappointed in the "Honorary Degree Committee" for GULC. That the committee includes only ONE student is a disgrace. I assume the lack of student representation on the committee is reflected in the choice of commencement speaker. After spending over $100k here, I sort of expected to have a speaker more currently connected to the legal world than the head of the NYC DOE. As my last official event at GULC, is this really what Development wants the graduating students to remember - that our school was too cheap and/or just didn't care enough to get a well-known speaker for our graduation?
Great job guys.
It's Georgetown. Get used to disappointment.
Last years SFS speaker, the head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Jessica Tuchman Matthews, gave a very acrimonious and generally acerbic speech about Iraq. It had virtually nothing to do with us and she very weakly linked it to our future by saying that we, as tomorrows diplomats, would spend our lives cleaning up the mistakes of the Bush administration. I wish I hadn't attended. Major disappointment.
I don't know what kind of directives are given to the speakers by Georgetown....but they might try to avoid making overtly political speeches and maybe try and give us some advice that we can use.
My graduation speaker was the head of the Department of Indian something or other. His accomplishment was the founding of the Smithsonian's American Indian Museum. His speech was absolutely worthless, as expected.
But it gets worse...The following year, the speaker was a Jesuit priest who wrote a book about "The Secrets of Jesuit Bread-Making." Wow, a Jesuit priest on the campus of a Jesuit school talking about bread. OMFG, what an awesome experience!
Why can Lecture fund get Bill Clinton and other relevant people to come and speak every few months while the University at large seems incapable of doing the same? I will say that the MSB typically gets relevant speakers, perhaps because business people are a little easier to come by than dignitaries and the like (in D.C.?), but there really is no excuse for our lackluster speakers of late.
Jusuit bread-making...jesus christ.
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