OT - Graduation! Today
Just out of curiosity, who else graduated or attended the graduation ceremonies today? What did you think of the speeches? (and if you went to Engineering graduation... holy hell that was long)
Personally, I thought that way too much time was spent on the economic crisis. It's ok for one person to talk about it. 3-4-5 really didn't work for me. I also thought that Larry Page was an okay speaker. He didn't wow me, but he had his moments.
In any case, congrats class of 09, time to celebrate!
Was it in the big house or diag? Last year's was a lot of fun, and I'll never forget the quote from Bob Woodward, "For today, goodbye. For tomorrow, good luck. And forever, Go Blue!"
Big House this year, and the quote is from Mary Sue Coleman, she always says that at the end of her commencement speeches.
But you are right the engineering one was way too long. I had some friends that just left before it was over.
I did like most of the speakers though.
The main one was in the big house.
I hope that the speaker for the College of Engineering's ceremony was better than the one we had last year. The only portion of his speech that received any positive reaction was when the guy lost his place for about a minute.
Page was okay. I commented to the people around me after the fifth or sixth "world economic crisis" mention that it was a good thing that nobody circulated a campus-wide email containing a drinking game. "Every time somebody mentions the economy, take a drink..."
The student speaker was good. "I knew so little English that I thought the Fishbowl was an aquarium. (laughter) I thought the Big House was a prison. (laughter) I thought that North Face jackets and Ugg boots were the unofficial school uniform. (laughter) Turns out, I was only right about the third one. (very much laughter)"
George was great!
At my 2000 commencement the speaker was David Halberstam. He wrote some books that nobody in 20 years had read. A year or two before it was Mamphela Ramphele (sp?), some South African poet. Meanwhile EMU was scoring speakers like Bill Clinton and Kofi Annan, amongst others. What the fuck? Even Sparty usually outclasses us in terms of commencement speakers. I mean shit, at least get Tom Brady, or anybody that the student body even gives the slightest fuck about!
When I graduated in 2003, we had freaking Granholm at the commencement and the guy who manufacturers the cheap toasters and coffee pots they sell a Meijers spoke at the engineering celebreation. Listen, I don't mind the governor showing up to talk to the graduates, but as the main speaker? OCC would have probably taken a pass. As for the toaster guy, 30 minutes of "this is a bad economy you are entering into" talk wasn't what I needed to hear after 4 years of slaving away in the EECS program. Give me Clinton any day.
I also graduated in '03. Granholm's speech was cringe-worthy - she seemed to think she was at a political rally.
BTW, to the previous poster, Kofi Annan actually was our graduation speaker in 1999.
Ha ha yeah that is pretty funny.
Tacopants is graduating? Now that *is* cause for celebration. But who will replace his receiving production?
my brother graduated and he was an engineer. the big house ceremony was awesome the first depressing speeches i didnt mind because they had a good message but that student speaker from china was great he was also very funny. The weirdest was that awful stars spangled banner singer what was that. No one could sing along like they usually do and she dragged it on forever. The engineering cerermony was like you said holy hell was that long the students speaker like the one talking about when u know youre a engineer was trying to be funny but ended up boring the hell out of everybody. The stuff about the swine flu was funny because it showed how everybody was freakin out about it too much. The speaker i heard was bad but it was fine for me because i slept his entire speech. Other than that everything was great and was run very well.