But the issue here is commencement speakers. In my humble opinion they are a waste of time. They seem all now to bring some political position to the fore, advocate their own interests, and overall miss the mark for what this day is for, the graduates, and for many, their parents who may have paid for this. As for awards, well you got a degree, what else is there. MIT in my day never had cum laude etc, just graduating was a statement in itself, we were not Harvard, they needed the distinction to identify those who really worked.
The list of some recent speakers included:
2018 Sheryl Sandberg,
Facebook
2017 Tim Cook, Apple
2016 Matt Damon,
Actor, Filmmaker
2015 Megan Smith,
Chief Technology Officer of the United States
2014 Ellen Kullman,
DuPont
2013 Drew Houston, Dropbox
2012 Salman Khan, Khan
Academy
2011 Ursula M.
Burns, Xerox Corporation
2010 Raymond S.
Stata, Analog Devices, Inc.
2009 Deval Patrick,
Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
2008 Muhammad Yunus,
Managing Director, Grameen Bank
2006 Ben Bernanke, Federal
Reserve
2005 Irwin Jacobs, QUALCOMM
2004 Elias Zerhouni,
National Institutes of Health
2003 George
Mitchell, Former United States Senator from Maine
Now I am certain that they are all fine folks, interesting speakers and the like, but after lost of time and effort all most students want is the piece of paper and finding a job. Are speakers a benefit to the Administration, more contacts and the like. They are little if any benefit to the graduates, at least short term.
I am very happy that Prof Wiesner decided to just make it short and sweet. Then again there were always those bomb threats from the anti-War types. I thought that bomb threats from anti-War protesters were a bit of an oxymoron. But we had a few. They did keep the speakers away though!