DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on May 9, 2009 9:47:13 GMT -5
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sead43
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Post by sead43 on May 12, 2009 13:34:57 GMT -5
Columbia gets their own university president this year (though Eric Holder will speak at Columbia College's "class day" the day before). www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--clinton-commencem0511may11,0,6909029.story Some in this thread have expressed disappointment at GU's separate ceremonies for each school. Apparently, Columbia has separate "class day" ceremonies for the different schools (names read, no degrees conferred) and then a unified university commencement (no names, but degrees conferred). Would this be preferable? Would it ever work/be done at GU?
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PhillyHoya
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Post by PhillyHoya on May 12, 2009 14:09:07 GMT -5
I think it could. Expand convocation to read names. It just I don't think we have the parking/facilities for a full scale graduation anymore.
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GPHoya
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Post by GPHoya on May 12, 2009 15:42:19 GMT -5
I have no recollection of my own graduation in 74 except that it was rainy and in McDonough and I had to to go to work the next day. Likewise, no recollection of my wife's graduation in 75 and neither of us went when we graduated from law school because we had a two-year old and were busy packing to move to Boston and still depressed from losing to Iowa..
For the four graduations of my three sons over the last 10 years (one law), we had the Cornell chemistry professor who was mercifully rained out, the Indian museum guy who said some things that made me think, Nina Tottenberg who took trite to previously achieved levels, and Bush's Commerce Secretary, who had a better life story than speech.
On balance, I would prefer to hear Bryan Hehir count sheep to any of these as he would organize the counting into three major points with three significant subpoints for each.
I conclude that a depressed gathering of cynics with a hangover is a tough crowd.
Nonethless, I am sad that I will need to wait for unborn grandchildren for my next boring Georgetown graduation. I will get over it by playing golf this weekend instead.
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Post by PushyGuyFanClub on May 12, 2009 16:15:35 GMT -5
I'm suprised Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria (College 2003) hasn't picked up any nominations. He probably insulted about half of the graduating class, his orthodoxy prompted the college to send out apologies to students and parents a few days later, it was cold and rainy, and rather than speak in his native language (though thebin, that's tough), he spoke in broken English with an extremely thick accent.
Brutal. (Fabulous thread though.)
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whatmaroon
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Post by whatmaroon on May 12, 2009 17:03:03 GMT -5
Zbig Brzezinski gave the SFS talk in '00, and actually did a nice job. He hit the then-Zbig Talking Points (engaging China, NATO expansion, something else), but also hit humor (talking about nuclear disarmament at this kid's elementary school graduation) and the future (silicon-based lifeforms?). Plus, the Great Deluge held off until the COL ceremony.
Non-GU law graduation included a joint ceremony with some of the other grad schools featuring some speaker of the annoying leftist academic variety who may or may not have been a current or former prof at the school and a law-only ceremony with a talk by one of the profs. The latter was nice, the former nearly as tiresome as the running commentary I volunteered to the people seated near me about her speech. Graduation Day isn't the time to talk at me about how I should be outraged over your pet outrage.
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RusskyHoya
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Post by RusskyHoya on May 12, 2009 22:57:30 GMT -5
As someone who will be graduating from both the SFS and the graduate school this weekend, I'm actually pretty pleased with the speakers. Hagel may seem like a bit of a cop-out, given his impending professorship, but he is, after all, the chairman of the Atlantic Council and has been one of the most prominent voices on international issues over the better part of this decade.
As for the graduate ceremony, it's pretty hard to go wrong with a Nobel Prize winner for a ceremony honoring a group that will contain quite a few future academics. Certainly far more star-power than past Graduate School speakers, such as last year's entry - "Jane Lubchenco, Distinguished Professor of Zoology, Oregon State University."
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on May 16, 2009 10:37:22 GMT -5
I liked Hagel. He kept it short, gave advice to the graduates, and didn't talk about himself. It was more of a life lessons speech than a foreign policy/politics/etc. speech. Nothing particularly earth-shattering, but it did its job.
The best speech of the weekend by far was the US Army captain from the Class of '05 who spoke at Convocation.
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sead43
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Post by sead43 on May 16, 2009 13:51:18 GMT -5
I liked Hagel. He kept it short, gave advice to the graduates, and didn't talk about himself. It was more of a life lessons speech than a foreign policy/politics/etc. speech. Nothing particularly earth-shattering, but it did its job. The best speech of the weekend by far was the US Army captain from the Class of '05 who spoke at Convocation. don't speak too soon...Gwen Ifill still to come. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) And for those not on campus, the SFS had their ceremony outside, then the MSB moved inside, but the College looks to be going for it outside at 3 PM...sky is overcast but the sun is peeking out every now and then, so let's hope it holds.
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PhillyHoya
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Post by PhillyHoya on May 16, 2009 13:58:38 GMT -5
Hagel was mercifully short. Best part of SFS was DeGioia not getting to speak at the end because they cut it short due to rain. I went to MSB as well. Moreno was funny but he did slip up and call JK Rowling a guy (there were a lot of Harry Potter mentions). Couldn't make it through a third though. Hope the weather holds out for the College.
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Post by HoyaSinceBirth on May 16, 2009 19:41:54 GMT -5
I thought ifell did a really good job it was short which was great in the heat and it was interesting. Not dissapointed at all.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on May 17, 2009 0:45:19 GMT -5
I thought Ifill was good. She was more intellectual than Hagel, but Hagel did a better job of making his point. I stand by my statement that the Army captain was the best of the weekend.
The weather was actually very cooperative. SFS was under overcast skies which kept things nice and cool. Towards the end of the names it rained a bit, so Galluci called an end to the festivities as soon as the names were done. As soon as he did that, the rain stopped, so we were able to gather with family and friends outside.
MSB went inside. I didn't make it to that one, but my MSB friend said it was great because they had air conditioning.
COL was back outside under brilliant and sweltering sunshine, which was unfortunate given how long the COL ceremony is. At the end it clouded over, so the friends and family time afterwards was all under mercifully overcast skies. Eventually the heavens opened, but it waited until about an hour after the ceremony.
Not sure what happened to NHS, but their ran site is Gaston so they can't complain either way.
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Post by washingtonhoya on May 17, 2009 3:16:18 GMT -5
SCREW YOU ALL WHO GOT TO GRADUATE OUTSIDE.
NHS got pushed to their rain site (Gaston), but I doubt they have complaints, and even if they do, there's only, what, 12 of them?
Moreno was meh as a speaker. Said pretty much the exact things I expected someone to say when addressing a business school class facing a horrible job market.
My failure to remember the specifics of his speech might have to do with the past six hours of revelry. Either way, graduating in McDonough instead of on Healy Lawn casts a pall over the MSB ceremony, but sitting through the COL ceremony and its 41 pages of graduates was a bit of a chore.
Respectfully, washingtonhoya MSB 09
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hoya9797
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Post by hoya9797 on May 17, 2009 11:30:04 GMT -5
When did graduation get moved up this early? This seems a couple weeks earlier than it was in the late '90s.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on May 17, 2009 12:03:32 GMT -5
Congratulations to all this year's graduates and welcome to the Alumni Association. Time to start giving back. ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) The HHC is a good place to start. Some highlights can be found here: commencement09.georgetown.edu/
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Bando
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Post by Bando on May 19, 2009 23:51:51 GMT -5
Ellen Degeneres was hilarious at Tulane ( Video)
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CTHoya08
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Post by CTHoya08 on May 20, 2009 13:05:59 GMT -5
I thought Knopp was pretty boring last year. It was basically a speech about "I founded TFA, and TFA is great because . . ." Still much better than our convocation speaker, who was the mother of one of the students, and basically spent the whole time bragging about her accomplishments, and the fact that she, a woman, accomplished them.
I actually like the separate ceremonies. Getting up to go to my roommates' MSB ceremony in the morning was a bit of a chore, but we were able to stand close to the stage and cheer for them and wave at them as they walked. During my ceremony (COL) I was much more reluctant to make any noise because I was surrounded by people I had never seen before.
Plus, the NHS graduation is so cute. They have like 100 kids, a student speaker, awards--it's just like high school!
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