Herbert selected as 2005 commencement speaker

Many universities across the nation try to send their graduates off with a speech from a big name speaker. \nThe University of Pennsylvania has Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations. Stanford University has Steve Jobs, the chief executive officer of Apple Computers. Miami University of Ohio gets William Safire, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times columnist. \nIU is taking a different route. Seeking to keep the commencement message intimate and specific to IU, President Adam Herbert will deliver the commencement speech to send off IU-Bloomington's nearly 7,000 graduates of the class of 2005. The president will be able to give a speech aimed specifically at motivating, inspiring and challenging this year's class, said President of the IU Alumni Association Ken Beckley. Beckley bypassed the traditional committees for selecting a commencement speaker and suggested that the president give the remarks this year.\n"I made the recommendation that I thought we could not have a better speaker for the commencement than the president himself because he is such a gifted speaker," he said.\nLarry MacIntyre, the IU spokesman, said normally both the commencement committee and the commencement speaker committee, both chaired by Beckley, would make recommendations to the President's Office for commencement speakers. Instead, Beckley recommended directly to the President's Office that Herbert speak at commencement. \nIn addition to giving more succinct and specific remarks to graduates, making the president the commencement speaker also will shorten the ceremony, MacIntyre said. \n"A lot of students and parents would appreciate a shorter commencement because we're graduating so many people," he said.\nBut some graduating seniors would have liked to have a more well-known speaker come to IU to deliver their commencement speech. \n"I think [Herbert] is a great president, but it might have been exciting to have someone exciting from outside the University speak," senior Audrey Anderson said.\nRecent IU commencement speakers have included Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, sportscaster and IU alumnus Dick Engberg and singer John Mellencamp. Judy O'Bannon, widow of the late Indiana Gov. Frank O'Bannon, spoke to the class of 2004.\nMacIntyre said bringing big-name speakers to IU is difficult because the University has a policy of not paying commencement speakers. He also said Herbert's message will be more meaningful than the message outsiders deliver. \n"God bless Senator Lugar, but when he spoke a few years ago, he gave a foreign policy briefing," MacIntyre said. \nBut both MacIntyre and Beckley said there are no plans to make Herbert's speech at commencement an annual tradition like it is at Purdue University, where President Martin Jischke sends the class off each year.\nMacIntyre said Beckley and Herbert and others in the administration will speak with many families and students after the speech to get their feelings on whether they liked the president delivering the speech.\nMacIntyre said Herbert's speech will work to celebrate the achievements of the graduating students. He said although the president has a speech writer, Herbert is going to have an active hand in the message.\n"The president is very involved in the processes," he said. "He doesn't let others do his speech for him. So the words you hear you can be sure are his words and his thoughts."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.