This year’s commencement speaker selection process taught us that at a university that doesn’t offer honoraria, getting speakers we want means starting as early as possible.
In that vein, commencement speaker advisory committee members seemed to draw the right conclusion.
Speaker selection committee chairman Ron Strauss and senior class president Liz Deane recently said to The Daily Tar Heel that a late start was one of the weaknesses of the selection process, and signalled that an earlier process would take place for next year.
Asking for free speakers as late as September or October is simply too late.
This is not to say that E.O. Wilson — a Pulitzer Prize-winning scientist who was chosen to speak this year — was a poor choice. While his work may be somewhat esoteric, his credentials are impeccable.
We look to commencement speakers to provide graduates with an inspiring send-off into the world, and that hardly means that star power should be the top priority. There are plenty of famous people who we would rather not come to speak here.
Yet response seems to have been mixed regarding the selection. While Wilson is certainly proven to be an enlightened and qualified academic, many seniors are concerned and even disappointed at Wilson’s lack of fame and recognition.
Chancellor Holden Thorp said that Wilson “mirrors” the top candidate recommended by the committee.
But seniors can’t be blamed for feeling Wilson is a second-tier candidate, especially since his name was absent from the list of recommended speakers.
