What did I do wrong?

Author: JACK DONALDSON '06

I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I'm sorry - apologies all around. Tell me whom to write to, and I'll send them a letter on my best stationery stock.Were we that much worse than last year's class? Is the swim team hazing being pinned on all of us? Why have we been swindled out of a decent commencement speaker? Rudy Giuliani spoke last year. From what I heard he was pretty good - he even cracked a joke about the Yankees. More importantly, people have heard of him. My parents. My friends.

I have no doubt in my mind that Ann Veneman is a kind, decent woman. Her professional accomplishments are nothing short of impressive. As Secretary of the College John Emerson said, "[she] is unique in having achieved a very high level of leadership in at least two very different and seemingly unrelated areas."

But this is my commencement speaker. If we were talking about a Tuesday night lecture in Robert A. Jones '59 House, I might find her arrival on campus compelling. However, under our current circumstances I am embarrassed. Did our U.S. News & World Report ranking drop so low that we can't land anyone to give a speech? I'm not so demanding as to think it was "Obama or Bust" (not that he would have been a bad choice), but a school's commencement speaker is a public statement of the school's reputation and prestige. Bringing a speaker who would not be recognized in her local supermarket is like waving the white flag to all other liberal arts schools.

I understand that following Rudy and Superman, there was a chance we would be disappointed. But this is going too far. It is insulting. Our College has many terrific connections in business, politics and entertainment, let alone money enough to buy the time of anyone we don't have an "in" with.

It comes down to this: a commencement speaker is about the name. I want to look back 15 years from now, after I've done the CSO-suggested year in Vail and after I've figured out whatever it is I'm going to do with my life, and when my little boy or girl looks up to me and asks who spoke at my commencement, to be able to say with a straight face and chest out, "so and so." Someone who is famous. Someone who matters. With Ann Veneman, I will have to look away, mutter under my breath "former Secretary of Agriculture," and try to change the subject so I don't have to admit the truth, the truth that my school let me and my family down, that my school did not appreciate the hard work I did during my four years and that the College did not appreciate the love I poured into every second I spent at the College on the Hill. Frankly, my friends and I deserve better than this slap in the face, this embarrassment to finish my college career. I love Middlebury and everything it has done for me. My life is as good as it is because of Middlebury, which is why this choice offends me so much. Ann Veneman is a choice that makes me scratch my head and say, "why?" because I thought it was common knowledge that commencement speakers represent certain ideals, namely that their reputation, recognition and public persona mirror the College's. They are supposed to be our equal in terms of status. Is parity with the last several years out of the question?

We should not have a speaker who, on first reaction, students assume is a close personal friend of Ron Liebowitz who could benefit from the six figures we can give a commencement speaker. Is it too late to switch Jurassic 5 into the commencement speaker slot? How about one of the comedians coming for "Best Week Ever?" At least they've been on TV before.