<p>To be topped only by.....nominations?</p>
<p>I hope they plan to give her an honorary degree at the same time.</p>
<p>Commencement speakers usually get an honorary degree.</p>
<p>Don't know about topping Rowling.
Here's a link to past commencement speakers in the state of Florida:</p>
<p>The</a> Chronicle: Commencement Speaker Database: January 24, 2008</p>
<p>It would have been hard to top Gates and Clinton. This one is not that exciting ... considering the audience.</p>
<p>Gates and Clinton; feh!</p>
<p>We had Vang Leng Mouanoutoua at Alliant International University at Fresno & Sacramento last year!!</p>
<p>JK Rowling over Clinton any day...Though the Clintons can hold their own in the fantasy department...</p>
<p>Previous Harvard Commencement speakers:</p>
<p>Harvard</a> Commencement 2007: Commencement Speakers 1950 – 2007</p>
<p>D is graduating this year, so it looks like I'll get to hear the world's richest woman speak.</p>
<p>Liliane Bettencourt?</p>
<p>Hey the President of the United States spoke at Miami Dade college last year.</p>
<p>I asked D (a huge J.K. Rowling fan) "Who would be the MOST exciting commencement speaker?" and she said, "BARACK OBAMA!" (I love my D :) ) (then I said, well, who would be the second most exciting?)</p>
<p>My D could have seen Obama speak at her school the other day ... alas, she is always the good student & felt she needed to be in class at the time Obama spoke. Maybe someday he'll speak at her commencement as the Pres?! I am not saying that I am an Obama supporter, mind you ... my jury is still out in this race ... but the idea that such a barrier breaking thing could possibly occur before my D is even out of college is pretty amazing. I lived next to the Detroit Riots of '67 & I might even see an African American pres. What a country!!</p>
<p>I hope Michael Jackson will be the commencement speaker at my school; that guy is seriously amazing.</p>
<p>If he had been at MY graduation, we would have been thrill(er)ed!! Off the Wall was amazing ... and the creepiness hadn't set in yet.</p>
<p>I am chuckling at the thought of Michael Jackson as a commencement speaker...This is TERRIBLE coureur, Ralph Ellison was the commencement speaker my year and I can't remember a thing about it. I wonder if that says more about my senility now or my lack of focus back then.</p>
<p>Michael Jackson the singer??</p>
<p>I had Alexandr Solzynetzin (too lazy to look up the correct spelling) telling us about The Decline of the West. It made us all very grumpy. I'd take Rowling anyday!</p>
<p>I don't have the faintest idea who spoke at my commencement. I probably didn't have the faintest idea who he was WHILE he spoke!</p>
<p>Gershon Scholem. And I don't remember a thing about it. I even knew who he was, too. (My advisor/mentor was a big fan of his, and was largely responsible for the invitation.)</p>
<p>I think Michael Jackson the beer guy died.</p>
<p>I like what Ds school does- they always have an alum for speaker.
The year she graduated it was Tamin Ansary ( he wrote West of Kabul, East of New York, and he is also the author of an email that was widely circulated after 9/11 about bombing Afghanistan .)</p>