EDITORIAL: COMMENCEMENT

Speakers need greater incentives

It's time to either ante up or eliminate. Those are the only two solutions to the current commencement speaker problem. If this university wants to continue to attract big-name speakers, it has to use its financial superiority to do so. While Rice does cover the travel expenses of the speakers and pays what President Malcolm Gillis calls a very small honorarium, these financial outlays are not sufficient to make up for Rice's tradition of not giving out honorary degrees. And with today's "megabucks" speaking circuits for politicians and public figures, a very small honorarium doesn't cut it.

Why not give honorary degrees then? With Rice students, faculty and staff continuously talking about Rice traditions that have only stood for 10 to 15 years, it is time to defend an 80-year tradition in not giving out honorary degrees. For once, we have a tradition that is truly a tradition; for once, we are setting a standard instead of following the Ivy League. This leaves the university with only one option if we want to keep attracting big-name speakers. Money. Gillis said he "would move heaven and earth" to get the speakers that the students recommended, but maybe it's time to appropriate a little more money. While it is true that four out of the five speakers on the short list declined the invitation because of prior commitments, the only way to entice them out of those commitments is through monetary gifts. So, starting to contact speakers earlier is definitely one priority for insuring a big-name speaker, but money is the clincher in today's world.

Of course, this all goes back to then-Student Association President Spencer Yu's drive to get a commencement speaker in 1991. Even then, people were wary of commencement speakers altogether. After a very successful speech by then-Secretary of State James A. Baker III, Stephen Baker, chief marshal and physics professor, was still skeptical of the whole idea of a commencement speaker.

The Thresher editors at the time wrote a staff editorial basically giving Yu applause for his work but making sure to point out that each senior class was responsible for deciding if they want a commencement speaker or not. The SA Commencement Speaker Selection Committee serves that function today, but something has broken down. As journalists, we are ecstatic that Ms. Greenfield is coming to speak at Rice in May, but she was not the choice of the students. She may even be an amazing speaker, but she was not the choice of the students. The answer to the break-down is to either spend more money on commencement speakers that the students choose or eliminate them. If we can't get a commencement speaker that the student body nominates, we shouldn't have a speaker at all.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the September 22, 1995 issue.

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