This is just dumb. I feel bad for the class of 2007. Sorry Columbia2007. If they're going to choose speakers based on who's "hip" in pop culture, they should just have Paris Hilton speak. Now that would be "hot."
The criteria were that the speaker had to come from the CC "family" (either an alum or related to a student), be willing to speak for free, and not have spoken in the last ten years. Fox was an alum ('89) who played on the football team when it broke its infamous 44-game losing streak...which they stressed a lot during the announcement. I get the feeling the selection committee faced a lot of refusals, but that this guy was so high on the list even then...is pathetic and absurd.
Luckily for all the applicants here, debacles like this will be remembered - and never repeated. Such a letdown after a speaker as significant as McCain last year (ironically he'll have to sit through this since his daughter is a class of '07 grad...)
I don't really see the problem here. I think he represents someone who went after his dreams after school and finally getting his big break. I can confidently say that not all the graduates of CC will be moving on to high paying jobs after graduation. Maybe Mr. Fox will be an inspiration to the other group of students who will need sometime to get their big break.
Tega - people aren't concerned with the choice of Fox because he's not wealthy (we're not that ridiculous, by far). Rather, they view his acting career as rather low-grade and unserious, and fear he's neither very inspirational in terms of someone who's really done something with his Columbia education nor will he be likely to give a good speech.
Denz- Stephanopoulous spoke in '03; there's a ten-year moratorium until he can speak again.
Columbia 2007, I was not thinking about wealth at all! People do not break into the entertainment business overnight. It takes a lot of effort to finally get the big break. He might be low-grade now, but he probably has the potential to be a serious actor (think of Jonny Depp, Tom Hanks). He might not yet have done something with his columbia education, but this gig with lost will perhaps open more doors for him to really put his education to good use.
I think its about time that we listened to someone who is still finding their way to remind graduates that it is not going to be rosy all the time after graduation but with effort you will finally get a break. I think this send a better message than bringing people who have already made it to give a false sense of hope that it is all well at the other side.
I think we should give him a chance to prove that he is neither inspirational nor able to give a good speech before we dismiss him as a piece of nobody.
Shouldn't that chance have come, perhaps, before he was chosen as speaker? Literally anyone could have been chosen and your reasoning applied.
If the speaker were to be someone struggling, surely someone struggling to do something more worthwhile than television acting could be found. God knows how many overstressed PhD candidates once went to CC.
I have never seen Fox in anything other than "Lost"; howver, "Lost" is an entertaining and fairly well-received show (though, in its new time slot, I understand it has suffered some in ratings). By almost any measure, the show is successful....and Fox has achieved what many, many in the entertainment industry fail to do.
"Worthwhile" is a label that is subjective. Working on a successful show that provides an entertaining escape is, in the opinion of many, a worthwhile endeavor. I hope the graduates give him a chance and treat him with courtesy due any Columbia University alum.
Churchmom--I realize that worthwhile is subjective, but looking at that list of other speakers that other colleges deemed "worthwhile", the difference is startling beyond over-subjective caveats.
I am glad my son is graduating in '08; Obama would be fantastic, but in any case, I think we will see a speaker with a little more demonstrated gravitas.
Also, if anyone care to remember, Matt Fox stared in the 1990's Fox TV Series, "Party of Five", which ran from 1994-2000. How people change since then.
