Apparently there is a petition being circulated by some graduating students that wants to have Kotb removed as speaker because “they deserve a better” speaker. From reading the petition, these students show themselves to be arrogant, entitled and uninformed. My daughter is awaiting a decision on her admission but if these students are representative of the Tulane student body, a denial would be no hardship.
I wouldn’t say they are representative. I saw the petition, it was removed from one of the sites they posted it. They had just over 200 signatures and it was shut down. There are entitled, rich spoiled brats at Tulane. And they are at NYU and Stanford, and Brown and so on and so on. It’s easy to see where they come from because it was probably their parents copping that same attitude on the Tulane parents group. Don’t let the few spoil your perception of Tulane. There are plenty of hard working, humble, genuine students there that would never think to assume they “deserve” a better speaker.
I really wonder when the graduation speaker became yet another prestige race. How utterly stupid.
When I graduated we had an unknown judge named Alexander M. Sanders. That was when the graduation speaker was just starting to be a prestige thing, but apparently not so much as to cause anyone to give a hoot about how well known the guy was. It turned out that he was great! Last year – I am sorry, no disrespect intended – a much better known Maya Rudolph was just awful. It may be on YouTube. If you watch it you will see that it is painfully bad. I think that this choice might be a reaction to that unfortunate choice of that comedian to deliver the address.
It is always hard to know. Ellen gave an address that is still considered one of the best ever given. She has strong ties to NOLA. The vast majority of times Tulane tries to have a speaker with ties to the university and/or NOLA. I understand Kotb was a local anchor before hitting the national stage. Do I have that right? My D’s year it was the Dali Lama and while you can hardly beat that for name recognition, it wasn’t really a great speech. Much better was him dancing with Scott Cowen, Dr. John, etc.
I have zero recollection of who spoke at my graduation.
Oh, and @luvsgelato I can assure you this is a small minority that are not representative of Tulane students. I wouldn’t be surprised if they got shamed by their peers into taking it down.
I never go on the Facebook parents site any longer, but if there are parents whining about it too, shame on them as well. They are only embarrassing themselves.
@dolphnlvr6 : "There are plenty of hard working, humble, genuine students there that would never think to assume they “deserve” a better speaker. "
I can appreciate your comment, and would amend it only by moving the quote over to “better,” as the source of that which is insulting and unfortunate if it were in fact said to characterize the feelings of the larger student body.
We can all assume that Ms. Kotb has no problems with elocution and enunciates quite well, considering that she has successfully navigated a career in broadcasting.
Why was she found to be lacking in value, cache, and stature in the eyes of the student body?
Perhaps the wording was merely unfortunate, and less reflective of their appreciation of her skills and success than (as your placement of quotes suggests) of their own need to ego-stroke in a landscape which has, according to what I am reading in this thread, become quite competitive and perhaps celebrity-laden.
I would only point out that 200 is hardly the student body. We don’t even know how many of those 200 were seniors, nor how many took the petition seriously.
As far as the quotes, I could see them being appropriate around both deserve and better. I agree with dolphnlvr6, students like that don’t deserve squat when it comes to graduation speakers if they have values that don’t reach beyond celebrity status, or in this case that she apparently isn’t a big enough celebrity for their taste. Because she certainly fits my definition of both a very accomplished person and a celebrity.
Well, yes, 200 is hardly the student body, agreed.
Isn’t the speaker selected by a committee of students? Wonder who else was being considered. Having someone who doesn’t bore the audience to tears might not be a bad thing.
My s’s year the speaker was Lisa Jackson, former administrator of the EPA and Tulane grad.
When I graduated, our speaker was Art Buchwald. He was poignant, clever, and very, very witty, His speech ended up published in the Washington post shortly thereafter. It was a riot.
I don’t think students get to select. It’s a complicated process and costly! Hoda was a local news anchor before she was recruited by Dateline. She also covered Katrina from NOLA. I’m sure she will make this very special and relevant to Tulane.
From time to time I peruse Yik Yak to get a pulse of whats happening on campus. There was a lot of posts condemning the students who started the petition for so many reasons. I saw one that said “You’re right Tulane, you don’t deserve Hoda. You deserve Kathy Lee” 
Some additional thoughts to my post that mentioned the Dali Lama. Like I said, almost no bigger name on the world “celebrity” chart. Almost inaudible and indecipherable at the commencement ceremony. And in a way, that is OK. Do these students really think they are going to get pearls of wisdom in 15 minutes that will change their lives that they haven’t gotten in 4 years at Tulane and 18 years before that? Or do they just want to be entertained, substance be damned. OK, make that clear then. Start a movement early that says it is so unlikely that any commencement speaker can say anything that will really stick with us and make a difference that we might as well just have a stand-up routine.
But it seems clear to me that one of two things is happening here. Either these objecting students are equating celebrity with quality, in which case they are naive, or they know that many celebrity speakers have been vapid, dull and disastrous as speakers at many graduations and are simply wanting to brag to their friends at Duke, Emory, USC, wherever, in which case they are shallow and short-sighted.
Everyone wants POTUS. Few get POTUS. POTUS had an interesting life before he was POTUS. How silly would they feel if in 2007 they had objected to a no-name senator from Illinois as the speaker, who no doubt would have given a great commencement speech, regardless of one’s politics.
If I have learned my history right, commencement speeches used to be given almost exclusively by the president of the university. That makes a lot more sense to me, actually. I really wonder when this arms race for speaker celebrity began.
Hoda Kotb was a local anchor, maybe back in the 90s? I always liked her. Plus, she has achieved good success in her field. Also, I recall she has some interesting story to her ethnic background – like maybe her father is Egyptian. She is dignified, smart, and poised – she should do great!
Yes, she is an Egyptian-American. Don’t know about dual citizenship, but that is definitely her ethnicity. She spent a couple years before graduating high school in other countries, but mostly went to several American high schools. Not sure what her father did, but he apparently moved for his job every few years.
Many schools have commencement speaker selection committees. Of course there is administrative membership, but I believe students participate as well (perhaps representatives from student government).
There is now a petition so t show support for Hoda 