<p>I don't think JK Rowling is an embarrassment. Her Harry Potter series did more to interest kids in reading than any book series in my memory.</p>
<p>Oprah Winfrey will speak at Stanford ( I heard that her friend, Gayle King, has a son that is graduating from there), Brian Williams will speak at Ohio State, George Bush Jr. will speak at the Air Force Academy and Furman University, Jessica Lange will be at Sarah Lawrence, Carl Bernstein at U. of Maryland, Bill Nye--The Science Guy!--speaks at Johns Hopkins, David McCullough at Boston College, Al Gore at Carnegie Mellon, Meredith Viera at Tufts (her Alma Mater), Sandra Day O'Conner at Gettysburg, Cal Ripken Jr. at U. of Delaware, and my favorite speaker, Anna Quindlen will speak to the lucky students at Kenyon (I think that her daughter is a freshman there).</p>
<p>So far I think I like 'Bill Nye' the best. Enough politicians already!</p>
<p>
[quote]
I thought Wash. U. was going to have Phyllis Schlafly. What happened? Guess the communal outrage worked.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Phyllis Schlafly was never supposed to be the commencement speaker. She was, however, awarded an honorary degree. (She already has two other degrees from WUSTL, a BA and a JD. She has a third degree from Harvard.) In a planned quiet protest, many students, guests, and faculty members turned their backs as she received the degree at the commencement ceremony. The university chose a retired civil rights attorney to introduce her. </p>
<p>A distressing decision by WUSTL, to say the least. I sure hope the school got a huge financial donation.</p>
<p>yesterday USC had: Walt Disney Co. President and CEO Robert A. Iger</p>
<p>Wesleyan is scheduled to have Senator Ted Kennedy speak, but he is sick now. Not sure what will transpire.</p>
<p>Syracuse had Bob Woodruff last week.</p>
<p>Princeton has Stephen Colbert.</p>
<p>Possibly the best of them all:)</p>
<p>Ernie - I agree, Princeton's on top with Colbert.</p>
<p>At Grinnell we will hear....Judith Butler.(!) Feminist, Jewish-antiZionist philosophy professor from Berkeley. I am planning to give my husband my Ipod...just not sure what I will give my mother in law.</p>
<p>Ben Bernanke is the Class Day speaker at Harvard. From the Crimson:</p>
<p>“When we found out J.K. Rowling was going to be speaking [at Commencement], we wanted to find someone that would kind of balance our graduation ceremonies,” said Class Marshall Alexander J. Tennant ’08. “He’s a Harvard alum, and he is also in a position to make major decisions for the US and the economy, and we thought he would provide that perfect balance of thought.”</p>
<p>Rensselaer had David Gergen whose speech was better than I expected given his on air speaking style, the gist of which was for students to find their inner passion, their Lambarene.</p>
<p>Chris Matthews is really making the rounds. He is speaking at our local community college graduation ceremony next week.</p>
<p>You can look most up on The Chronicle website: The</a> Chronicle: Commencement Speaker Database: May 20, 2008</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon: Al Gore gave the keynote speech. Randy Pausch also gave a speech, featured on GMA the following day. Both received well-deserved standing ovations.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>Rensselaer had David Gergen whose speech was better than I expected given his on air speaking style, the gist of which was for students to find their inner passion, their Lambarene.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Had to look up Lambarene...and how it works in this context. Thanks, learned something new today--I try to learn something new every day. (I can quit for today.)</p>
<p>I agree with ucsd-ucla-dad -- my nephew is graduating from Johns Hopkins this week and our whole fam-damily is very excited about Bill Nye The Science Guy! First time I've really looked forward to a commencement speech.</p>
<p>A few years ago Mr Rogers spoke at BU. When he stood up to speak, the entire class sang the entire Mr Rogers Neighborhood theme song.</p>
<p>Personally I'd love to hear JK Rowling. She must have such a creative and intelligent mind to come up with such a fully-formed fantasy world, with an entire system of magic that is consistent and makes sense, and the characters who inhabit this world have complete personalities with strengths and weaknesses. I'm not much of a fantasy or sci-fi fan, I tried but couldn't get interested in Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings, but when I first began reading Harry Potter to my kids, and got to the part where she describes Hogwarts, and how the people in the paintings move between pictures and visit one another, and how the staircases move and their destination varies depending on the day of the week... I was hooked. What a fascinating world she created, I'm sure she'll be an interesting speaker.</p>
<p>I thought that the Duke commencement speaker was awful, even though she is a known author. (Barbara Kingsolver) - She also has a daughter who is a student at Duke.</p>
<p>She used the speech as a platform to talk about Global Warming and her liberal views on communal living. Not appropriate at all in my opinion for this occassion! This topic was somewhat ironic since is was such a cold and rainy day in May in the South! She went on and on, when no one was listening because it was pouring rain and everyone was very uncomfortable. At one point a group of students started clapping, hoping she would cut the speech short. She didn't.</p>
<p>S mentioned that she was the "substitute" commencement speaker, and many students and parents were very disappointed. :o The student paper had an article about the speech and the comments were brutal, but accurate.</p>