Begin a new connection

Seniors will be hearing the thoughts of IU President Adam Herbert at commencement. \nThe word commencement signifies a beginning, presumably of a new period in graduates' lives. In this case, it will virtually be the beginning of most students' connection to Herbert. \nHerbert's coaching at the Cream and Crimson football game is a great example of his enthusiasm and ease with students, but we don't see it often enough. \nStudents lose out on meeting a great guy, and the university president loses out on taking the pulse of a massive university's flagship campus.\nTraditionally, someone from within the University speaks at the ceremony, someone from without the University speaks and students even speak to their classmates. \nFor four, or a few more, years, the graduates have been hearing the IU administration's views on college and life. \nWhile that's perfectly alright, graduation is an opportunity to hear a message of someone from "the real world." Most seniors are on the brink of complete adulthood; they've spent the last few years gradually taking on new responsibilities.\nIt makes a lot of sense that graduates want to hear what a successful adult from some sector other than academia has to say about the life that students will soon commence.\nThere are some reasonable arguments for selecting Herbert as the commencement speaker. It will reduce the length of the ceremony because the president would be giving a speech anyway. He's a gifted public speaker with a lot to say. He works for IU, so his comments can be targeted to these students and this campus.\nHowever, we wonder how this choice will be received. While Herbert is the head of this institution, to many students, he seems more a figurehead on campus. \nWe wish that he were able to find time to participate on the campus. He meets freshmen on move-in day and seniors at the end of the year, but other administrators are the ones whom students know, and who know students. \nCommencement speakers from outside the University almost always have their own agendas in their speeches, but so will Herbert. We'd like to hear exactly what Herbert has to say, in his own raw words, not in pristine phrases from a speech writer that supposedly reflect the president's own views. \nPerhaps the University is using the 2005 commencement to institute a tradition similar to Purdue's custom of having the president speak. OK.\nBut let's also make commencement the beginning of greater, more meaningful contact between the administration and students living their college lives, not just marking the end of that chapter. \nBy the time of commencement, it's too late for a university president to begin to influence the students for whom he works.