Columbia College’s graduation speaker is apparently going to be Matthew Fox. Yes, the guy from Lost (or Party of Five for you children of the ’90s). Fox graduated from Columbia back in the late 80s and is now famous. The Columbia student body has never been one to let things like this go. Everyone remembers their response to the Minuteman fiasco last fall. It is funny because the students protested John McCain as commencement speaker last spring. I wonder if now they would rather have a presidential hopeful than a B List (I’m being generous) actor.
I bring this up because as of today, Cornell does not have a commencement speaker. As far as I know we do not even have a short list. Now, there is not that much to be said for a great commencement speech. The greatest value probably comes 20 years after the fact when we can say, “That guy spoke at my graduation.” Do we want someone who will say something interesting or someone we can brag about later? I would personally prefer the latter. Columbia, unfortunately, will get neither.
LOL!
We don’t have a commencement speaker because Cornell doesn’t do commencement speakers. They’re convocation speakers 🙂