I understand why Northwestern seniors aren’t thrilled by the announcement that Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley will speak at their commencement. He’s not remotely cool, is about as exciting to watch as a girder, and is not Stephen Colbert. I’d be let down too if I found out some Windy City geezer was speaking at my graduation, while UCLA gets Bill Clinton, and Yale got Tony Blair and Paul McCartney. (No school should get a former world leader and a Beatle.)
But as lame as Mayor Daley is, NU’s senior class should stop thinking the decision reflects much on who they are — or their Northwestern experience.
The response to this year’s commencement speaker has been overwhelmingly dramatic. The vibe seems to be that seniors aren’t just disappointed by Daley: They’re aghast. The Daily Northwestern’s Web site has received 122 comments thus far on the topic, most of them condemming Northwestern for ruining their graduation, some claiming they will never donate a penny to the school because of its choice in speakers. The comments make it sound like Northwestern invited Kim Jong-il or Lindsay Lohan’s mom. I think most seniors would have preferred one of them.
After President Henry Bienen hyped up an “extremely well-known” speaker, being downtrodden by Daley is perfectly reasonable. But a lame graduation guest shouldn’t inspire seething comments such as, “Northwestern, this is the final letdown,” or “We should organize a boycott.” A fair amount of commenters say they’d prefer no speaker at all than have Daley. Others (including Rumor Royalty) say seniors should skip commencement and “throw a party on Deering Field.” The absolute worst comes from the folks bagging on other institutions — one commenter says that because Daley graduated from DePaul, he’s not very smart and shouldn’t speak at the intellectual powerhouse that is Northwestern. Another asks: Since Daley routinely speaks at local high school graduations, “is NU really on that tier”? Is being a top 15 school not good enough for you?
Daley doesn’t have the star power of an Oprah, the charisma of a Colbert or the accent of a Tony Blair. But why does any of that matter? The point of commencement is to celebrate the completion of college, not bask in a celebrity’s presence. The seniors venting about Daley appear to believe Northwestern owed them some sort of amazing commencement speaker, and that the school betrayed them by settling for the mayor of the third-largest city in America. But why? So they could brag to their friends? Northwestern owes students only one thing when they fork over tuition, and that’s a good education. Not amazing concerts, not uber-competitive sports teams and especially not some celebrity speaker. Northwestern doesn’t make your experiences — you make your experiences at Northwestern.
Daley sucks, but one subpar speaker doesn’t diminsh the Class of 2008’s time at Northwestern. He’s one man talking at one event. He won’t erase four years of Dance Marathon, football games, nights at Ridge and Davis, walks around the Lakefill on pristine days, painting the Rock and countless other memories. You can drop any other name into the commencement speaker role, but it remains the event where students get their diplomas in front of their peers and parents. It’s the last event for the seniors — why freak out about it now when the end is only a few weeks away?