Dean Drescher and Mohammad Saad were elected senior class presidents last month. Thankfully, they have already gotten a head start on one of their duties.
The senior class presidents have always had an input in the selection of the commencement speaker for their class. This year, the presidential pair, along with the rest of the commencement speaker advisory committee, began the process of choosing a speaker earlier than usual.
The committee consists of the 2012 senior class presidents as well as the class of 2011’s presidents and other student leaders.
Dean and Mohammad are new to the committee and much of the decision making process could be delegated to the more experienced members, such as the class of 2011 presidents.
Drescher and Saad should have the most say in this process, as their class is most affected. And from what they’ve told us, their thoughts are being taken into consideration.
Since the committee is doing a good job of integrating the newly elected student leaders we applaud their head start.
There are many potential obstacles in the process of picking a speaker — the largest of which is UNC’s tradition of not compensating speakers.
Dr. Ron Strauss, executive associate provost and chairman of the committee, has said the 2011 speaker, environmentalist and Harvard University professor E.O. Wilson, was not the committee’s first choice. Strauss has also stated that the failure to get the first choice was due in part to the committee’s late start in the search.
It is great that the committee is striving to obtain the best speaker possible.
