Selecting University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg as the keynote speaker at this year's University-wide Commencement is a total failure to chose a speaker who will leave the senior class with fulfilling insight and positive lasting memories. Moreover, it is tantamount to a public relations suicide attempt.
The purpose of a keynote Commencement speaker is to provide an outside voice that gives students their final bit of enlightenment before leaving the world of academia. Higher education is often perceived as a pursuit of objective truth. Thus, an independent speaker can impart wisdom to students in what could be construed as their final class session.
GW administrators deserve nothing less than contempt from the students they purport to serve for ignoring this role of a keynote Commencement speaker. Trachtenberg is the ultimate GW insider, having been at the helm for 19 years and having had more than his fair share of talk time. Regardless of the content of his remarks, it is unlikely that will bring an enlightening or worthwhile point to graduating students.
Including former city councilwoman Linda Cropp, the wife of a GW professor, is another failure to attract an independent voice to speak to students at Commencement. GW marketing often touts the University's location in one of the top intellectual and cultural centers of this nation. Only laziness or sheer incompetence could have resulted in two main Commencement speakers being pulled from within the GW community.
Over the past 19 years, Trachtenberg attempted to transform GW into a world-renowned international institution of higher education by increasing fundraising and marketing GW as a premier academic institution. Shame on our president for taking part in an event that will run contrary to the goals that he has worked for over the past two decades. After all that work, his final legacy at GW will include the inability for his administration to secure a quality, internationally known Commencement speaker.
The purpose of a keynote Commencement speaker is to provide an outside voice that gives students their final bit of enlightenment before leaving the world of academia. Higher education is often perceived as a pursuit of objective truth. Thus, an independent speaker can impart wisdom to students in what could be construed as their final class session.
GW administrators deserve nothing less than contempt from the students they purport to serve for ignoring this role of a keynote Commencement speaker. Trachtenberg is the ultimate GW insider, having been at the helm for 19 years and having had more than his fair share of talk time. Regardless of the content of his remarks, it is unlikely that will bring an enlightening or worthwhile point to graduating students.
Including former city councilwoman Linda Cropp, the wife of a GW professor, is another failure to attract an independent voice to speak to students at Commencement. GW marketing often touts the University's location in one of the top intellectual and cultural centers of this nation. Only laziness or sheer incompetence could have resulted in two main Commencement speakers being pulled from within the GW community.
Over the past 19 years, Trachtenberg attempted to transform GW into a world-renowned international institution of higher education by increasing fundraising and marketing GW as a premier academic institution. Shame on our president for taking part in an event that will run contrary to the goals that he has worked for over the past two decades. After all that work, his final legacy at GW will include the inability for his administration to secure a quality, internationally known Commencement speaker.
