OT? Graduatin' Season. Who had the Worst Commencement Speaker?
My graduation speaker at UM was the creator of the Cathy comic strip, Cathy Guisewite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Guisewite
I wasn't going to go regardless of the speaker, but she really sealed the deal.
Who can beat that?
What's the over/under for number of posts before this turns into a political mud slinging match?
Yeah, but he was probably terrible primarily because he was from Ohio.
His speech was great.
Went into the speech wondering what would happen and actually enjoyed listening to it. Could have been far worse.
Just imagine how good it could have been if he didn't write that speech the same morning he delivered it.
I thought he was great. I at least got a few laughs out of it. Student speaker, however, was quite cliche.
I agreed, the student's speech reminded me of a high school graduation speech. Also, what was up with the one professor who just rambled on about the movie Lincoln.
"Lincoln" rambler was outgoing Dean of LSA, Terrence MacDonald.
The student speaker was pretty bland. Would you believe that I applied? My application was incredibly energetic and innovative...but they turned me down. Sucks.
Graduated from Wayne State SoM on Monday and ours was Dr. Grover, who is the public policy manager for the AAMC. He gave a pretty political speech. I didn't really think it was appropriate for the venue. But whatever, I'm a doctor now, so IDGAF!
Ah, apologies, I didn't realize this was a UM Commencement speaker thread.
Graduated in 2007. Sat front row for Bill Clinton. He was fantastic. Say what you want about his politics, the man's a hell of a speaker.
Sure as hell beats the speaker from the last 2 years. Usually they just pick a random faculty and he tries to impress us and fails.
Thank you.
I was there and I agree.
For the life of me, I can not remember who spoke at my commencement. They were that good....
Sandwiched around presidents is ... Cathy.
I had the UMich president (Duderstadt). I can't remember a single word he said. It was cold. It rained.
I opted just for the Engineering ceremony inside Crisler.
Can't remember if there was a speaker.... but it was dry.
Itt doesn't get any worse than Lee Bollinger in a 38 degree rain storm! I also blew it off for the CoE graduation in Crisler and was treated to Phil Condit, the soon-to-be disgraced CEO of Boeing.
That was a monsoon. And he just kept talking...and talking....and talking.....
The worst ever.
edit: wow....lots of 97 grads here!
It was Ken Burns who I had not heard of but now it seems like he's everywhere. Positive thing to waiting until December is I got to see the 97 football season - after 4 straight years of 4 loss seasons it was worth it.
I thought Ken Burns was great.
was the best I ever heard. It was 2003 at my daughters HS graduation. He spoke about when he interviewed for the job at my (and my daughter's) high school. He was chosen over another good guy in my HS Football Coach.
Lloyd was almost my HS coach. It is difficult to grasp but true. Lloyd said he regretted not getting the job because of the HS tradition we had. Somehow I think he landed a job that had just a little bit more tradition, but not by much.
I still have it on tape and I transcribed it too.
This person understands this game.
But then Obama showed up in 2010 and brought balance back. Even my dad, who's about as anti-Obama as it gets, had to concede that he was a helluva speaker.
She called every one in the audience who didn't have a job, "LOSERS". That was probably the majority of the graduating class of 2003. Me included. I kind of don't want to be called a loser at my own graduation.
She also spoke before President Obama in 2010 and was horrible. Obama was great though
2003 was my graduation as well. All politics aside, that just was a very weird speech and didn't seem very appropriate for the occasion.
I can top Jennifer Granholm. Mine was Rick Snyder. He kept talking about how much of a "nerd" he was in undergrad at Michigan. Plus a good number of students were protesting that day took away from what should be a celebration of our accomplishments.
It seems like Governers rarely do well speaking at Michigan's commencement. I wish I graduated the prior year as I heard Obama was actually good.
Something about how the school is really large and yet still manages to be really great academically. By the time he spelled that out though the entire crowd was thinking about how scary big their junk was.
I also remember he menioned that his roomate must have been in the botony program because he had a bunch of plants growing in his closet. I giggled.
I agree the though, politics aside, the picketing of the graduation ceremony seemed to focus the attention on the speaker and not the students, which is a shame.
Like both Clintons, Granholm, Obama, and whoever else can come along and speak and not one feels the need to make a big deal out of it, but Snyder does it and we need a scene? You can be for or against any of these people or their politics, but it's not a heavily poltiic forum, it's just a pat speech. People need to get over themselves.
Was going to say the same thing. My mom actually came to me afterwards and said that she voted for Granholm once but couldn't see herself voting for her again since she basically called UM students "losers" for expecting to do something with their lives. I know I'm missing some nuances there, but it was a horrible speech. The guy who spoke the next year at my wife's graduation wasn't anyone super-famous (I think he was an editor for a car magazine), but he had some crazy stories and seemed to get a kick out of talking to everyone. Even though it rained.
Weirdest speaker I saw? My brother graduated from MSU during the winter term and they had the CEO of some cheap appliance company (Proctor-Silex?). Wasn't really bad, but it kind of spoke to MSU's status that the goal was to be a CEO of a mid-sized sweat shot. Also, he was apparently a horrible student who lucked into the position because of family connections. Go Staee!
Founder of Automobile magazine. When I heard he'd be our commencement speaker, I felt pretty let down... but he was a great speaker, and very funny. I really enjoyed his work.
Conversely, we had Larry Page for the engineering graduation in 2005, and were very excited about it (Google co-founder and Michigan alum). But he wasn't actually much of a speaker. Kind of rambled on about how we should do more to explore outer space. Not the worst graduation speech I've heard (I think Granholm takes the cake for that), but not that great. We likewise just had Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder) this year for Berkeley's graduation, and it was kind of the same deal. Turns out really smart engineering types are often not good public speakers. Shocking, I know.
Politics are verboten, bitte.
I meant to reply to michimoby and his/her comments about a political figure.
But still, a politician was elected by some percent of the electorate. Now, go poll everyone in the universe you ever meet and find out how many actually liked the Cathy comic strip. Your argument is invalid.
yep, most people are aware I am pretty darn liberal and I agree Jenny was a terrible governor. Michigan has not had a quality governor since George Romney.
Most of the time the gov shows up to U of M's commencement anyways i feel like and all of a sudden he was the main speaker. Didn't care for it one bit regardless of politics.