I am confident that I speak for the majority of the senior class when I say that having student speakers at our commencement is a cop-out. Though I can’t say that I am aware of any fiscal difficulties on Seton Hall’s part, it seems that would be the only legitimate excuse of choosing a student speaker in lieu of the more traditional choice: an influential public figure from whom we may learn something. At the very least, Seton Hall could have chosen someone who has actually made their way through the world, someone with wisdom to impart as we set off to make our own way. Mortimer Adler once wrote that when one chooses a book, one should not choose a book on his own level of understanding; rather one should choose a book well above his reading level—because that is how one learns. We ought to take Adler’s advice. Let our commencement speaker be someone unlike ourselves. Let him be someone with something to tell us, something to teach us; not someone to tell us what we already know. The fact of the matter is this: Even if the university can find a student eloquent enough to deliver our commencement address—which I’m sure they can—, he or she will probably be much like myself, in that we both have a lot to learn. And preferably from someone older, more successful and more experienced. Bradley Morely is a Seton Hall student and can be reached at bradley. morely@student.shu.edu.
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