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BU's commencement speaker drawing heat
By adamg on Wed, 05/10/2023 - 2:41pm
NBC Boston reports Boston University is, so far, standing by its planned commencement speaker, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslov, in the face of protests from Hollywood writers currently on strike against Zaslov and his ilk. BU announced Zaslov's selection two days after the writers' strike began.
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Comments
I bet
He’ll be writing his own speech.
Dog Bites Man
Another protest over a commencement speaker and demands to cancel them. Ho hum. Another sign of May just like the Lilacs at the Arbs.
Gotta agree
I'm not sure why colleges spend the money on these. People occasionally remember the controversy but no one ever remembers the speech and most won't remember the speaker. It's 15 minutes of one's life you won't get back. Just cut to the diploma ceremony, the only thing people showed up for.
When I graduated middle school the commencement speaker told the crowd that no one would remember his name or speech but they would remember he did a somersault in the middle of talking. He then walked away from the podium, did a somersault, and returned to whatever he was saying. Sure enough, I have never forgotten that move.
I always thought someone with
I always thought someone with actual connections to the school would be better than any big name. The big name is so they can get attention... But yeah maybe bring back someone who's been graduated for ten years and is just hitting their stride. Someone who overcame adversity.
Same
I don't remember the speakers at my graduation, but I remember one from my brother's. He was the guy to take the red M&Ms out of production due to the confusion with red dye No. 2.
We didn't have a speaker
Back then MIT didn't have any commencement speaker (they don't give honorary degrees). It was the first outdoor commencement in decades and it was drizzling, so President Weisner promised to keep his part short and quipped that a parent had told him something like "What's a little rain? I've been getting soaked for the past 4 years."
MIT's 1999 Commencement
MIT's 1999 Commencement speakers were Click and Clack. They were graduates, locals, and pretty good at talking to a crowd.
Don’t give speeches like my brother
Don’t give speeches like my brother.
My brother's graduation from
My brother's graduation from UMass Dartmouth in 2008 and it was the most depressing college commencement speech I have ever heard
My brother's graduation from
My brother's graduation from UMass Dartmouth in 2008 and it was the most depressing college commencement speech I have ever heard
Uh
You had a middle school graduation? With a COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER?
In my school they just let us out for the summer and in the fall we went to a different place.
Nah...
Corporate PR a d communications staff won't fall under unionized writers
Are the NBC10 writers on
Are the NBC10 writers on strike two?
("To tell the graduating class basically, which is a lot of COM students, that this is someone they should look up two is dangerous and I think disrespectful to the students,” said BU student Ruby Hawes.)
I get we can not all be perfect but confusing two with either to or too on a major local network news story is a bit much. In regards to the strike itself I think people need to choose their battles. This is not a dangerous person with dangerous thoughts. If we get up and arms over every single industry leader that speaks at a college nobody will take the serious concerns serious.
If I
were famous, you couldn't pay me enough to lie to these kids about all the typical "shoot for the stars" mumbo jumbo.
There has to be a message worth sending them off with, but that ain't it.
They should just go with artists and entertainers every year
At leasts artists can inspire and entertainers can write and deliver good material. When I graduated from college, many years ago, I still thought that CEOs operated in some sort of meritocracy and that they had to be good at making businesses work well in order to keep their jobs.
Years later, I've worked for enough companies and seen enough senior leadership teams to know that that isn't true. At all. Nowadays, knowing that someone is a C-level executive at a company, especially a large old company like Warner Bros., gives me very strong opinions about that person's ethics and competence as actual businesspeople, and they are extremely negative. It's just the best bet, if that's all I know about them.
It's kind of a shame how un-respectable business managers are these days. It is openly a place where bad people go to rip other people off, and most of the people there know it. If there was more regulation and enforcement to make white collar crime more difficult, decent people would be more attracted to the field. Right now, being a decent CEO must feel like fighting a bunch of assholes with one hand tied behind your back.
Or humanitarians
My kid's college graduation speaker wasn't someone famous. I don't remember his name but I remember his speech. He was a doctor who worked in resource-poor countries helping improve conditions and medical care. It was a beautiful, moving, inspiring talk.
Status, prestige and cash
The MFA got a boatload of money from letting William Koch brag about his boats when Malcom "Look at me, ain't I great" loaned the MFA's front lawn for the display of Koch's boats. Note: While descended from the same loins of the John Bircher William is not part of the Koctapus. There was an exhibition of Koch's private art collection. This is what made Malcolm...fill in the blank. He raised buck bucks for the MFA by, ah, pushing vanity exhibitions. Remember the cars belonging to some famous person. And let's not forget Michael Jackson and Bubbles in pristine white ceramic. But I digress.
When are commencement speakers for the benefit of graduates and when are graduates used for feeding the egos of wealthy and/or powerful people? Sometimes the speeches are inspirational; sometimes they are aspirational (for the college's cash flow).
Which is that case here is up for grabs.
It is ironic however that a university closely related to one of the few authentic Christians of the 20th century, Martin Luther King, invites a fellow who is a consummate whore to his lust and ego. Not that there are more than few true leaders who are Christians in the nation. But a consummate capitalist whose only theology is creating riches is utterly at odds with university that has a strong connection with a supposed identity associated with authentic Judeo-Christian values. Values which reject greed, lust for wealth, and at least where land is concerned, the essence of capitalism itself.