Commencement speaker choice lacks student voice

President Michael McRobbie made a key change this year as to how commencement speakers are chosen, designating the duty to honorary degree recipients and eliminating student input from the selection process, a University spokesman said Thursday.

IU announced Tuesday that former Australian Justice Michael Kirby will speak at the University’s commencement ceremony, leaving some students to wonder how that speaker is chosen.

“I don’t know who chooses the speaker,” senior Lakyra Pharms said. “Most people don’t know.”

With the new process, students do not have input in the decision, said Larry MacIntyre, IU vice president for University communications.

“They don’t get to decide who gets the degree,” MacIntyre said, “just like they have no input in who graduates, either. There are some things that are probably not appropriate for student input.”

Under former President Adam Herbert, a committee was in charge of recommending speakers for the ceremony, he said. When McRobbie took office in 2007, he changed the process of choosing the speaker. It is his concern that people who receive honorary degrees at the ceremony deserve to speak to the graduating class, MacIntyre said.

“McRobbie wants to assure when we award the honorary degrees that students get a chance to hear from the recipients,” he said.

McRobbie decided to change the process after last year’s commencement ceremony, MacIntyre said. Many people were disappointed when Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the recipient of the honorary degree, did not get a chance to speak to the departing seniors, he said.

“She has an incredible story, an incredible history,” MacIntyre said.

In the new process, someone on the faculty nominates a speaker, MacIntyre said. The nominated speaker then goes through a series of checks and reviews ending in a review by the board of trustees, he said.

Lauren Robel, dean of the Maurer School of Law, nominated Kirby, a human rights advocate who recently retired from the Australian High Court, the equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senior Kyle Cowser said he is nonchalant about who will be speaking at the commencement. Because IU is not a private or Ivy League university, Cowser said he knows IU will not get a big name as the commencement speaker.

“Besides, I want people to be there because I’m graduating,” he said, “not because they came to see Will Smith give a speech.”

Other students do not share Cowser’s indifferent attitude.

The commencement ceremony usually lasts a long time, Pharms said, and if students knew a well-known speaker would be there, they would be more willing to attend.

Pharms was impressed upon hearing President Barack Obama will be speaking at the University of Notre Dame’s commencement ceremony.

“If we had Obama, I’m pretty sure everyone would go,” she said. “I wonder how they pulled that. It almost doesn’t get any bigger than that.”

Senior Karen Gillespie said she thinks if students cared more and put effort into the process, big name speakers would come to the ceremony.

“There’s no reason we couldn’t get a big-name speaker,” she said. “We have multiple top-10 programs and are one of the biggest schools in the state.”

Gillespie said she thinks the reason people don’t care is because of the impersonal graduation process. Smaller graduation ceremonies would change people’s perspectives, she said.

“I think every school should have their own graduation ceremony so students can actually walk across the stage and feel recognition,” she said.

People nominated to receive honorary degrees are required to have made extraordinary achievements in their careers, MacIntyre said.

“I anticipate some very accomplished people to receive a degree and speak in future years,” he said.

While students do not have input in the process, some students are excited to hear Kirby’s speech.

“Maybe he’s an interesting guy,” Cowser said.

Sophomore Peter SerVaas, the newly elected president of the IU Student Association, said he thinks it is exciting to have leaders from the international community.

“He may not have a household name, but he will bring a different perspective,” he said.