Commencement Speakers

Graduation speakers: Issues and controversies

Interesting article by Michelle Gahee in the recent Tidings:

At Loyola Marymount University, the selection of actor-director Mel Gibson and film director William Friedkin as commencement speakers has generated much talk -- Gibson for his conservative (some would say traditional) views toward the Catholic Church (he likes the Tridentine Mass), Gibson and Friedkin for some of their films that have shown explicit violence.

Funny how she qualifies Gibson's "traditionalism" by saying he likes the Tridentine Mass. Is that all it takes?

But I'm not sure I can picture Mel Gibson at LMU. At the commencement ceremony for my B.S. degree in 2000, our speaker was the CEO of Honeywell corporation. He gave an excellent talk concerning ethics in engineering and how as engineers, we should always be asking questions about the effects of our work on the world. However, the speaker at the ceremony for my M.S. degree in 2001 gave what was largely a diatribe on the liberation of radical feminism. Sometimes it's hit and miss.

So I pose the question - what makes a truly beneficial or inspirational commencement speech?