LETTER: High profile speaker worth the money

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by Ba Nguyen

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I am writing this letter in response to Carmen Peralta's letter in the Sept. 29 issue of the Thresher .

In her letter, Ms. Peralta argues against the Sept. 22 staff editorial which called for the Rice administration's seriously considering paying large speaking fees to attract prominent commencement speakers.

Ms. Peralta in her letter goes on to argue that the Rice University community is "already gifted with incredible talent" and that "being invited [to speak] is an honor as it is."

While Ms. Peralta's points are certainly well-taken, I do not believe that they are realistic, given the speaker "market" and the stated wishes of the 1996 graduating class.

For the past few years (beginning with James Baker III's commencement address in 1991 up to last year's commencement with Senator Bill Bradley), it has become clear that the graduating classes clearly preferred that the commencement address be delivered by a prominent speaker from outside the Rice community.

In light of this recent trend, I find Ms. Peralta's comments quite inconsistent with her position as chair of the 1996 Commencement Speaker Selection Committee. How is it that someone who is charged with the responsibility of representing the 1996 class on this issue ends up writing a letter that questions the "need for a commencement speaker at all"?

"I wanted to see someone ... who would give a good speech, not just a big name," she writes. "However, it seems that the students prefer, as a commencement speaker, somebody the whole world can know about."

This exactly makes my point. Although Ms. Peralta is certainly entitled to her opinions, I do not believe that her opinions are the determining factor in this issue.

The students of the 1996 class wanted a prominent speaker, and it was the responsibility of the Selection Committee to achieve this goal in an efficient and effective manner.

I believe that an offer of money to the proposed speakers (as disillusioning as it may be) might have been the most effective way to fulfill the Committee's responsibilities. Without money, Rice will have an annual problem in attracting the kind of speakers the students want, and this year's selection process only proved this to be the case.

When the class of 1996 was surveyed about choices in speakers, various names came up, ranging from Ann Richards to Steven Spielberg to Desmond Tutu.

However, despite all the long-lists and short-lists that were offered, the whole survey proved to be nothing more than a wish-list. Money and lack of planning (on whose part I do not know) basically rendered the whole survey meaningless, for every speaker turned Rice down.

Rice, however, was fortunate enough to schedule columnist Meg Greenfield as this year's commencement speaker, but this, I believe was a close call.

For the past few years, in fact, it seems that they have all been close calls, in that all of our recent prominent speakers were personal acquaintances of either President Gillis or a member of the Board of Governors.

Board member Charles Duncan was a close friend of Jimmy Carter; President Gillis knew Elizabeth Dole; and this year, President Gillis came through again with Greenfield.

The Commencement Speaker Selection Committee almost seems useless in this context. But even with Greenfield, the students wishes were not entirely met, for I would bet almost anyone a nickel that during the surveys, no student wrote Meg Greenfield down on his list of choices.

In the end, it was only a stroke of arbitrary luck that President Gillis happened to know Greenfield, and that she accepted Rice's offer to speak. Many students, some of whom had voted for Toni Morrison or Robin Williams, did not even know who Greenfield was.

For my part, I must admit I was somewhat disapointed.

However, we should consider ourselves lucky that we got anyone prominent to speak at all. But how long can such luck last?

In its annual search for commencement speakers, Rice should stop depending on luck and start depending on its sure and vast financial resources.

It must be remembered that this, after all, seems to be the only way to achieve what the majority of students want.

Ba Nguyen

Lovett `96

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the October 6, 1995 issue.

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