Graduates Get an Earful, From Left, Right and Center

[im10ashus]

By SAM DILLON
Published: June 11, 2006

It's all been said before, at one university or another.

And so, in trying to come up with something new, many commencement speakers do considerable research on what to say — and what it is permissible to say — before they address graduating students. This year, Judith Resnik, a legal scholar, could win the exhaustive-preparation prize. For her speech at Bryn Mawr, Dr. Resnik reviewed over 100 years of commencement addresses.

"I found that these talks gave me utter license to talk about whatever I wanted, from chemistry to health care, from wars to Social Security and beyond, to ballooning," she told the graduates at the ceremony. Dr. Resnik used that license to speak out against torture (the text of her speech contained 54 footnotes).

Dr. Resnik was one of many commencement speakers who spoke out against what they consider a growing belligerence in American foreign policy. Others condemned war, racism and poverty.

At Marlboro College in Vermont, Nan Aron, the president of Alliance for Justice, a liberal group, denounced the Bush administration for its eavesdropping program and for holding prisoners at Guantánamo Bay without charging them with crimes.

cont'd...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/education/11commence.html?hp&ex=1149998400&en=15697be820ccd299&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[spindrifter]

1. William Ruckelshaus told

University of Washington grads a lot of things, including the war in Iraq was ill-conceived; he would have voted for Yosemite Sam for pres., the current administration is leaving the grads with a whopping deficit, plus some comments on the environment. Congratulations to DU'er Seabob on his Master's degree! (Well, that's from me.)

[im10ashus]

2. A Master's degree?

Congrats indeed!

[spindrifter]

3. Yes...we are all very proud of

him--he worked full time during the program, as did many of the others in his cohort.

[im10ashus]

4. You'd think our government would allow those of us who WANT to study

to be able to. It's so expensive to go that you need two jobs and countless loans to get through. But it's worth it if you can do it. I just wish it didn't cost so much. I'd be through by now if so.