Commencement speakers struggle to inspire students

The economy is tanking. Unemployment is rising. The world is bracing itself for a possible pandemic.

And as this year's crop of soon-to-be college graduates grapple with the challenges ahead, commencement speakers are struggling to find the words to inspire them.

The group of speakers coming to area schools has the usual share of luminaries - former Secretary of State Colin Powell at Franklin and Marshall College on May 16, award-winning journalist Christiane Amanpour at Dickinson College on May 17, fashion designer Marc Ecko at Rutgers University on May 20 - and most acknowledge that the economy will hang like a thundercloud over the celebrations.

"These students have gone through some pretty tough job-interview processes," said Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.). "When they entered [college], they probably saw a job out there."

Sestak will speak at Widener University's May 16 ceremony. His speech, like many others this year, will draw heavily on lessons from what happened on Wall Street.

With three children in college, journalist Judy Woodruff, of PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, and husband Al Hunt, executive editor of Bloomberg News in Washington, say they can identify with what graduates are feeling.

"For me, part of the message is going to be, 'Yes, it's tough, but keep in mind the positive,' " Woodruff said. "Great things have come in the past in times of adversity."

The duo will deliver a tag-team address May 17 at Gettysburg College, where their nephew, Alec, is graduating. Each plans to be the other's editor.

"I can tell him a joke doesn't work," Woodruff said.

Neither remembers what was said when they graduated from college, "a very, very long time ago," Woodruff said. But they agree that this year's graduates are less likely to forget, given the extraordinary circumstances surrounding commencement.

"Anybody who has ever achieved anything has always had setbacks and difficulties," Hunt said. Graduates "just need to realize that some of their difficulties are coming a bit earlier."

Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Bucknell University's speaker May 17, said he planned to encourage students to use their degree "to help the world around them."

"This year, especially, because there is so much turbulence . . . I think we need a compass, and the only compass I know of is a moral compass," he said.

Wiesel added that he hoped other speakers took the job seriously.

"It's the last address that students hear, so they hear it differently," he said. "They deserve a real creation, something new, not just to say the same speech all over again."

Bringing in a high-profile speaker like Wiesel can be costly for colleges, but Bucknell spokesman Tom Evelyn said the college had made commencement plans several months before the economy collapsed.

If the economy doesn't recover, he added, "looking forward, we might have to make some adjustments."

MSNBC host Chris Matthews said his May 16 speech at St. Joseph's University will be a departure from the content of his show, Hardball.

"It's a tough world, and I'm going to give practical advice," he said. "Not about going into politics, but about dealing with people."

Judge Marjorie Rendell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said that in her speech at Shippensburg University tomorrow, she'll talk about pursuing "things that feed their passion."

"It's a long life," she said. "They don't need to rush to be or do something."

Rendell added that she and her husband, Gov. Rendell, who will speak at several colleges, wouldn't compare notes.

Speaking to future doctors and health professionals at Jefferson Medical Colleges's May 29 commencement, Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin said, she'll encourage graduates to see today's challenges as an opportunity.

"The skeptics and the cynics would say given the world's crises, now isn't the best time for taking chances, but . . . it's not a time for retreat," said Rodin, a former president of the University of Pennsylvania.

She said she didn't remember who spoke when she graduated from Penn in 1966, "which means it was likely a bad speech."

Local television reporter Lisa Thomas-Laury will do double duty this year, speaking at Rosemont College on May 16 and Gloucester County College on May 21.

"I might focus more precisely on a message that we learn that family is important, that the basics are important . . . telling the young graduates to not worry so much about being successful in material terms," she said.

Unlike many speakers, renowned director and producer Gilbert Cates won't talk about the economy - "a blip in their future" - in his May 17 speech at Muhlenberg College.

Instead, Cates will talk about how to succeed, drawing inspiration from Woody Allen's famous maxim, "Showing up is 80 percent of success."

Regardless of the message, almost all the speakers agreed that timing is the most important feature of a commencement speech.

"The two words that everyone in the audience loves to hear," Cates said, "are 'thank you.' "

Chart includes information as provided by the colleges and universities Compiled by Inquirer staff writer Zoe Tillman