Deans alone should not choose speaker

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First Lady Laura Bush isn’t speaking at the Graduate
School of Education and Information Studies commencement, and many
students couldn’t be happier. But Dean Aimee Dorr could have
avoided the fiasco that originated from students’ lack of
input in the process. Dorr isn’t alone ““ the School of
Public Policy and Social Welfare, and the School of Law also have
commencement speaker selection processes that limit student
input.

The Bush incident could have been avoided if Dorr had ensured
students a say in the final selection process in the first place.
After all, the commencement ceremony is to honor students at
graduation, so it makes sense for student representatives to have a
more meaningful voice in deciding the options. At GSE&IS,
though, student involvement is both minimal and indirect. The same
holds true for the law school: students have the final say, but
they are not given any candidate options after the dean and one
student representative choose the speaker. In the Public Policy
school, Dean Barbara Nelson does it the easy way: she picks the
speaker herself. Granted, the Law and Public Policy School has made
efforts to include the student body in the past, but that has been
unproductive. However, this shouldn’t be an excuse for
graduate school deans to avoid student input altogether. Rather,
the deans need to explore other student-inclusive, open methods
that allow students to both select the candidate options and
participate in the final choice.

Undergraduates too should have a say in who their commencement
speakers are ““ but since the student body is so large,
administrators should consult with the student’s official
representatives: the Undergraduate Student Association Council.