Columbia's Commencement Day Speech

[Rudbeckia]

Originally Posted by holden125

I was there (not graduating, just a spectator). Congrats.

Just to clarify, this was the speech by Lee Bollinger, the President of COLUMBIA, not Barack Obama, the President of the UNITED STATES.

I think it was at least somewhat appropriate since he was asking graduates to accept responsbility of citizenship in an age where free expression and intellectual discourse are facing new challenges. That is an important message to pass on since many of the graduates will be leaving behind an atmosphere where big ideas are discussed regularly for the world of work, where they generally aren't. It's valid to remind them to remember the importance of free expression.

It didn't strike me as pushing any particular political agenda at all.

thats interesting you think that, everyone sitting around me thought differently as did my famliy, but i guess everyone has there own view of what a graduation speech
should be

but it may be that I just have not heard enough graduation speeches in my life, and his was normal


and since you bring up Barack, the clips from his commencement speech he gave at whatever school he was giving it to, sounded much more like a graduation speech, but i only heard parts of it

and btw Bollinger is very known for being a first amendment activist which is a good thing, the journalism school sure liked the speech, but again I wish it had been more general (so not just the journalism school cheered every 5 seconds), and more graduationish feeling (is that a word?)

[bizchick86]

I think most students enjoyed the speakers, including Bollinger, for the opportunity to yell whenever the speakers said something seemingly related to their schools.

That was really the only thing entertaining about commencement, other than all the double entendres about passion and learning.