Who was your Commencement Speaker?
And how was it?
There was some mention of this in the Obama threads, and I found it interesting, and here we can get more in depth, and not wade through (as much) of the political nonsense.
Having said that...
My speaker was Hillary Clinton. I can't say it was particularly memorable, and I can't remember what she said. But I was glad at the time to have someone famous and a big name (and not someone who wrote a comic strip...I felt for my friends). It would have been cooler if they hadn't trumped it with Presidents over the next decade or so. I more remember how my cousin scheduled his wedding the same day, and I had to fly to St. Louis right after the ceremony.
The only other one I've seen was my brother's, with Lee Bollinger. And I remember the POURING rain. And Lee going on...and on...and on....as we're all soaking.
How about you?
February 12th, 2010 at 12:43 PM ^
Lawrence Kasdan (director of the Big Chill). It was OK...
February 12th, 2010 at 1:48 PM ^
it was really hard for me to give a shit.
the only thing i remember from the whole ceremony was that the student speaker was wearing some sort of plant vine instead of a hood or tassels which prompted several "legalize weed!" shouts from the crowd.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:44 PM ^
Christiane Amanpour. I remember her speech being average.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:11 PM ^
I liked her opening about how the big house being under construction reminded her of her surroundings growing up. Excellent tactic when beginning a public speech.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:20 PM ^
Charles Barkley
February 12th, 2010 at 1:39 PM ^
Mine too. In case you didn't know, we graduated with Dick Enberg's daughter. I saw him walking to the commencement (he passed by the house we were at on State and Hoover) and he asked him if he wanted to share our keg with us. He said no, that his daughter who was graduating would get mad.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:45 PM ^
don't remember...much too stoned that day.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:45 PM ^
Bob Woodruff. It was OK. A lot better than the Xerox guy a few years before.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:05 PM ^
with Woodruff as our speaker. Not only is he a Michigan man, but I thought he was pretty inspiring to listen to. The guy's been through a lot.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:43 PM ^
Same deal, I thought he did an excellent job.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:13 PM ^
spell check dude? not so much.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:46 PM ^
I also had the spell check dude, and I apreciate all he has done for mispelings, but wonder why he couldn't have mroe influance on MgoBlog.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:45 PM ^
I had spell check dude and Bo. The whole thing really did seem like one big joke. Like haha spell check, oh bo just swore, silly old men.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:50 PM ^
But I have to say, I thought he was a helluva journalist and I love a lot of his books.
Re: Granholm. I hear what you're saying re: her point. She made her point, and the "losers" line was totally fair. But my real issue was her fairly theatrical performance of the whole thing, you know? Maybe petty, but it felt very phony.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:47 PM ^
Not very good, in my opinion.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:56 PM ^
I agree. She wasn't mine, but I was there for my wife. We still talk about how Granholm said something like "some of you will fail." Not really what you should be telling people at commencement.
Mine was David E. Davis, Jr. the next year. No one knew who he was (he was a racecar driver and founded one of the auto magazines) and a lot of people were pissed. But he gave a great speech and was pretty damn funny. I still remember some of the advice he gave.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:01 PM ^
Anybody else have a commencement speaker that when announced everyone was like "awwwwww", but when he or she gave the speech, it was like "they rocked!", and were particularly funny, or inspiring, or otherwise a big pleasant surprise?
February 12th, 2010 at 1:09 PM ^
I was at a professional conference in Nashville and the plenary speaker was Sarah Cannon, who played Minnie Pearl on "Hee-Haw" and and the Grand Ol' Opry. You know, the ol' bat with a price tag hanging off of her straw hat. We all rolled our eyes when we saw the program. I mean, come on.
That lady hit it out of the park. She had a lot of words of wisdom, and her years of performance meant she had superb timing for comedy and dramatic effect.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:20 PM ^
In '94 the commencement speaker was the creator of the comic strip Cathy. Pretty much the entire student body was like "WTF!?" when it was announced, but her speech ended up being a hit.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:26 PM ^
...seem to disagree.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:35 PM ^
I confess I wasn't there, but I got the impression from my friends who graduated that day that it was very entertaining and the crowd really enjoyed it. If anything, it was a break from the usual generic "GO FORTH AND CONQUER... CARPE DIEM" or politically-related humdrum.
February 12th, 2010 at 3:08 PM ^
I don't remember much from the speech other than the fact it was raining and cold. I was not happy given how much work it took to get to graduation. I remember seeing then President George H.W. Bush the year before. He was pretty good in my opinion.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:48 PM ^
Cathy Guisewite?
Ack!
February 12th, 2010 at 1:07 PM ^
I believe she said, "Some of you will be losers. You will. It's a fact," or some such awesomely inspiring tuff-luvin'
And oddly enough, re: David Davis - I knew a guy that worked for one of his Auto Mags in college, and thought the guy was great. Heard his speech was solid, too.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:11 PM ^
How do you comment on that speech without sounding political? Just NM...
February 12th, 2010 at 2:32 PM ^
I was there- that was my commencement. She said "some of you will go on to do wonderful things, xyz, this is where it all started," etc. She said "I know a lot of wonderful, amazing, blah blah" people who went to U of M. Winners. But there are also losers who went to the University of Michigan.
There was an audible gasp in the crowd when she said that. She rebounded to make her point- that we shouldn't take anything for granted, and should realize that the future is only what you make of it, and don't get too high on yourselves, 22-year-olds, because now real life starts, etc. But yeah- that "losers" line is what everyone remembered. Overall, I think a lot of people couldn't get past that line and didn't like the speech because of it. It's a good lesson in how the choice of a single word can really screw up an entire speech/presentation.
February 12th, 2010 at 4:34 PM ^
I was there as well. I wasn't impressed with the speech. Kofi Annan's in '99 was a lot better.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:21 PM ^
Same class as MGoPacquiao. It's funny because the Michigan Daily wrote an article basically saying "Who is this guy? This is a lame commencement speaker" (which, in fairness, is what we were all pretty much thinking). At the start of his speak he read part of the article and asked the author to stand up and big recognized. Pretty good speech, funny and interesting, but I still would have preferred someone "bigger name".
February 13th, 2010 at 11:49 AM ^
That guy was in my hall in EQ freshman year. It was great because he definitely was on the douche-y side.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:06 PM ^
Totally agree. She talked about how some of us would fail and to not be that person. I just remember it as the last time grass was in the Big House.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:50 PM ^
Speech was ok...started off by commenting on how she was glad we welcomed her by making the big house look like a war zone (during bleacher replacement)
February 12th, 2010 at 12:54 PM ^
That must have got some nervous laughter. Uhhh...yeah...
February 12th, 2010 at 12:50 PM ^
I was required to attend each commencement ceremony. My speaker was forgettable, but the best one I saw was Leonard Elmore, who wrote "Get Shorty," "Be Cool," and "Out of Sight," among other things.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:03 PM ^
Neg for mixing his name up.
Pos for complimenting a University of Detroit Jesuit High grad.
Second Pos for referencing "Out of Sight," a movie filmed all over Detroit/Bloomfield Hills, enabling ThWard to see Clooney and J-Lo in person.
Net? Plus 1!
February 12th, 2010 at 1:49 PM ^
Thanks for the tangent about Out of Sight - part of it was shot at a house behind the house where I grew up. They also filmed a scene with guys (Clooney and Cheadle?) sitting in a car - you can see my old backyard where I used to pretend to be Rick Leach.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:22 PM ^
Any chance you grew up on Kensington?
If so - yes, I'm a witch.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:48 PM ^
You are a witch...or lived close by. Which is it?
February 12th, 2010 at 2:51 PM ^
One of my HS buddies lived across the street from that house, too, on Kensington, and I was at his place a few nights during the late night shoots. The lighting completely lit up virtually every back yard on the street, it was nuts.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:59 PM ^
I remember my parents being a little put off by all the film trucks but they didn't say anything about the lights. I was living in Chicago at the time. The house they filmed at was actually on Surria Court (a private road that comes off Kensington). It was owned at that time by the CEO of Excide Batteries - he later served time in jail....could be another Elmore Leonard novel.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:18 PM ^
I can't believe I messed that up. I even paused for a minute before I wrote it, but then I wrote it wrong, anyway. My friend's dad is named Leonard Elmore, which I always thought was funny, so that's the name I always want to use.
Elmore Leonard.
Elmore Leonard.
Elmore Leonard.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:29 PM ^
Sweet.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/si_online/covers/images/1973/1210_large…
Len Elmore ftw.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:41 PM ^
I thought it was boring...I had high expectations for him because of his books, but thought it was dull. Glad you enjoyed it.
When my brother graduated it was Cathy - discussed above...I thought she was kind of interesting.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:50 PM ^
http://milproj.dc.umich.edu/home/biography.html
No, I'm not kidding. IIRC it was a worst-case scenario late April / early May day in Michigan, too. Chilly, windy, and a tiny bit drizzly... I have no idea who was in charge of getting a speaker.
My sister had Bush I in '91 on a sunny, 60+F day.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:56 PM ^
The U President thing is always a bit lame, because you already have had them around. Probably heard them in some form before. But you didn't even get one of the good Presidents.
And is there some connection...the worse the speaker, the worse the weather? I'm betting those that get Obama are going to get a tan. (Again, no political commentary....just believe any President of the USA, sitting or not, is a pretty good catch).
February 12th, 2010 at 10:12 PM ^
I was Class of '97 so we had Lee Bollinger as our speaker. I couldn't tell you what he said though.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:41 PM ^
Duderstadt - Worst.Speaker.Ever - the highlight was people cheering the winged helmet design I put on top of my mortar board....and graduating of course.
February 12th, 2010 at 1:49 PM ^
The best part of my graduation were the inflatable penises. After the ceremony, my younger cousins asked me "Will, I don't understand...why did they have giant finger balloons?"
February 12th, 2010 at 12:55 PM ^
I didn't go to my masters graduation, but for PhD it was Joe Schwarz. I think I might have been the only person in Crisler truly geeked about it (Winter graduation, obviously).
He was a state senator, and a good state senator, and contemplated a run for governor. A U-M medical school grad and a pretty good friend to the U up in Lansing.
I was always impressed by him as a senator but IIRC his speech wasn't that great. Content was fine, but there's a certain cadence that good speakers adopt when speaking to a crowd, and he just didn't have it.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:55 PM ^
Former President Bill Clinton
Very good imho, also, as others have said, the student speaker my year was excellent.
UofM '07
February 12th, 2010 at 1:03 PM ^
Class of '94. Also in the pouring/freezing rain.
She writes the Cathy comic strip. As underwhelming as you could imagine. The previous two years were H. Clinton and Bush and I remember us all thinking - seriously??