<p>My thought is that a college Commencement should focus on honoring and inspiring the students who are graduating. Sometimes other things make their way into the ceremonies. At one recent ceremony, the topic of how much money was raised in donations, as well as a discussion of the percentage of students who benefited from scholarships and grants, was highlighted in an administrator’s speech. I couldn’t help but wonder how the parents of full-pay students felt about that … </p>
<p>Any thoughts on what should and should not be included in the formal Commencement ceremony?</p>
<p>I feel like my S’s school went a little too far in honoring every single graduate whose circumstances were slightly out of the ordinary. For every one of those kids there were probably 10 who had it just as rough or worse, only the school didn’t know about it to put them on a pedestal.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school. DD graduated from a Jesuit college. The only ones honored were those receiving honorary degrees, and the graduates. However, the speakers all spoke of the commitment the Jesuits have to serving the community. At some schools, this might have seemed out of place, but at a Jesuit school it was fine. To be honest, we really enjoyed that graduation!</p>
<p>At my son’s ceremony the guest speaker was from the area (born) from a well-to-do family that spoke of the evils of capitalism and the benefits of merely doing what one enjoyed. Easy to do perhaps, if one is born wealthy, but not so easy if one is attending college in order to find a career and (hopefully) earn a nice standard of living. Not many live at Walden Pond. Easy to espouse philanthropy if one is born into millions.
Personally, I found the speech quite hypocritical given the speaker had quite a soft life himself, due to his parents and grandparents hard work and experiences.</p>
<p>To me, it’s all about the length of the ceremony. My daughter had two, one for her engineering department, and one for the entire university. One was 3 hours in length…the other was 3 1/2 hours. That’s too long.</p>
<p>Tulane’s president is retiring this summer. He was president when Katrina hit and did a wonderful job of getting the university past that. He is also dyslexic. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is something said/done at graduation next week to commemorate him and what he has done for Tulane and for LD students in K-!2 nationwide. And, I think that is appropriate as long as it is not over done.</p>