Tulane's commencement speaker this year is the Dalai Lama? That sounds like a comedy sketch.
Prestige be damned. I think commencement speakers should first and foremost appeal to young people. They should be like guests at the White House Correspondents' Dinner – people of the now.
Wesleyan's commencement speaker this year is Joss Whedon – yes!
Ripon's commencement speaker is Nate Silver – yes!
Wisconsin's commencement speaker is Anders Holm (Workaholics) – bit of a reach, but yes!
Oprah is a "get" for Harvard, but wouldn't 21-year-olds rather hear from Jay-Z?
Toss-up! Better commencement speaker this year: The creator of Kinect for Xbox (RIT) or the CEO of Dropbox (MIT)?
Scud: Who was your commencement speaker?
Jon: Well, I didn't attend, but it was Frank Marshall, Spielberg's producing partner. Had I stayed at UCLA for another quarter, it would've been Cookie Monster. For real.
Scud: When did the guitarist for Linkin Park speak?
Jon: 2009, I think. He stepped in when James Franco withdrew.
Jon: This year, I would've invited ascending alumnus Chris Hardwick. And there's always Urkel.
Scud: Urkel could address graduates in complete darkness.
Phil Donahue gave the commencement address when I got my master's degree. This was in 2003, a couple of months into Iraq. He spoke out pretty harshly against the Bush administration (and it being NC) he was booed quite a bit. Some people walked out. I was thoroughly embarrassed. So was the chancellor.
Ken Burns was there receiving an honorary degree and he had this great look of utter shock mixed with amusement on his face as the whole thing went down.