Spring Commencement 2017 (Congrats all)

Fellow class of '10-er.  Bragging rights still apply.  

Congrats to Braylon Edwards who received his degree...12 years after his class.

Mine was Governor James Blanchard.  He was a graduate of State.  I skipped it because of that.

Of all the notable U of M grads they had to bring in a Sparty...

Mine was Mike Wallace. There were a small number of students who stood and turned their backs on him with "End Apartheid" bumper stickers on the backs of their gowns. I can't recall why they were protesting a journalist as opposed to a politician. Apartheid was the cause of the day back then, so maybe it was just a general revolt and not specifically directed towards Wallace. 

My biggest issue yesterday was the farce of the main commencement. That first girl who was a "graduating" chemical engineer was a lie. I did not like that she was presented as such since she's not graduating this year (which I found out as I am a graduating chem e). Same goes for the student speaker that just used it as an opportunity to toot his own horn up on stage. Overall was pretty disappointed

For one of my children who graduated from Syracuse in 2006. An honorary degree went to Syracuse All-American, Detroit Pistons' and NBA great Dave Bing and the guest speaker was Billy Joel who decided to make it short and sweet and end it on a high note. 

Another one of my children who's a "Double Wolverine" missed President Obama who gave the commencement speech a year after my child's first graduation ceremony at The Big House.

It was bad and self serving. The University celebrated itself instead of the gaaduates. My undergrad one in 2012 was a million times better. The worse part is we knew it would be bad and the people running it ignored student input.

In recent Arrogant Michigan fashion, yesterday’s event was a celebration of the university – not a celebration of the graduates and their accomplishments.

Much was made about the lack of a Commencement Speaker. In my first graduation ceremony we had Walter Cronkite (who was a fantastic speaker) In my second one we had the Secretary General of the United Nations (not a great speaker, but he was in charge of the UN!).

Yesterday, they did in fact have a commencement speaker, though he wasn’t called that. The 2017 grads were treated to a horrible and long winded speech by Michigan President Mark Schlissel. His remarks could have easily been tailored to provide more than enough room for an actual Commencement speaker. The students spoke up early and often about wanting an actual commencement speaker but there request fell on deaf ears in the university administration. In hindsight, this may have been because this event was more about the University and its current president’s ego than about anything else. Hence forth he will always be President Schnitzel in my mind (after that performance he needed to be pounded, battered and fried). You may call him President Weiner Schnitzel if you like.

Perhaps the saddest thing about this entire affair is that it had an easy solution. The University had two outstanding grads in Benj Pasek and Justin Paul there both as entertainers and as Bicentennial Alumni Award winners. Based on their Oscar award and their place in current pop culture, these two would have been just as compelling as the founders of Zingermans, speakers at the 2015 commencements. Instead we got treated to President Schnitzel’s dissertation on woolly mammoths

Some key highlights from yesterday:
-The students breaking into the “We Can’t Hear You! Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap” cheer when the 1st speaker – was at the podium. This was the first of many production gaffs

-The speech by Vice Admiral Ted Carter before he commissioned the newest crop of ROTC officers. (Carter could have been the commencement speaker)

-The performance of the “Amazing Blue Medley” by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and many graduation members from the School of Music, Theatre and Dance. It was nice to see how much talent we have coming out of this school and to allow them to share it on this stage

One last lowlight – no final playing and singing of the traditional “The Victors”. I think this was another gaff. In the closing remarks Provost Paul Courant said there would be the ‘contemporary’ version (which they did) followed by the traditional one song by the students. The band never struck up the tune and everyone just kind of wandered out of the Big House.

Perhaps a fitting ending to a tone deaf event put on by the current administration.

I was there yesterday for a nephew's graduation (Poli-Sci, U.S. Marine ROTC!).  It was frickin' cold, but the program actually moved along and was at least interesting in a variety-show sort of way.  My nephew says that many of his fellow students were pretty disappointed, though. And, it was disappointing and somewhat bewildering that the promised "conventional" singing of The Victors at the end of the ceremony never happened. 1

This was not the worst graduation ceremony I've attended, however.  The worst was another nephew's graduation in Winter 2011, with Jill Abramson, who was then the editor of the NY Times.  Her speech was long, boring, a real downer message - and all about her.  But, it would have been a great drinking game for every time she said "I" and "me". 

I graduated in '92, and the speaker was Charles W. Moore, or so I'm told.  I don't remember much...  The prior year the speaker was Pres. Bush 41, the year after it was Hillary Clinton, both of which I'm sure were much more memorable.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but commencement should be about the grads; it should celebrate their years of hard work, serve to welcome them to the family of alumni out in the world, give them an optimistic and idealistic send-off, and challenge them to get out there and make their way and leave the world a better place.  Sure, tell a story, but remember that the audience is not there to see YOU.

If you want to torture yourself or just play along with the Jill Abramson drinking game, go here...

Congrats to all of the grads, get out there and kick some ass!

Class of 2017.

Dating myself, but our speaker was an ex-football player named Ford. Afterwards, he was in the Crisler concourse shaking hands. At that time I remember thinking that the VP I just met might someday be president. My initial impression of him was just how big he was.

The ceremony on Saturday really left a bad taste in my mouth. Other than the performances by the MTD School and the two men who worked with La La Land (I forget their names) and the video of graduating students talking about their experiences and love for the University, the entire ceremony was extremely underwhelming. The student speakers were very bad in my opinion. The first of which blatantly lies that she was a graduating senior in Chemical Engineering. My buddy who is a ChemE was texting his class (less than 100 students) and no one knew who she was. Furthermore, her name wasn't included in the book of the graduating class. The next student speaker had a poorly written speech and used cliche sayings like "There are 26 letters in the alphabet but only one will change our lives forever." The third then just used the stage to brag about his own accomplishments, and it was extremely arrogant. The biggest problem I had though with the ceremony is that the administration spent too much time celebrating the University. The video that was used as a replacement to a commencement speaker was a flop. It was very hard to understand, since the audio was so poor and they kept switching the speakers. The Bicentennial awards were pretty cool, but I honestly would have preferred to see several graduating students be honored. I would have loved to learn more about my class and their accomplishments. Also, President Schlissel's speech put the entire stadium to sleep. And then to cap it all off, we didn't sing The Victors at ending like they had said we would. After we all left our seats and half of the class left through the tunnel, they finally played it. Overall it was very poorly done. Luckily, my Ross commencement the day before was solid.