https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2018/tra...cement.php

Looks pretty solid this year. Warner, Gates, honoring Katherine Johnson (Hidden Figures is about her) and the first 3 African-American residential students, and President Reveley's last Commencement. I wish there was this kind of lineup my year.

https://scdbwiki.swem.wm.edu/wiki/index....t_Speakers

Doesn't look like we've ever had a sitting President give a commencement speech.

Second oldest school, 2 1/2 hours from DC.

Maybe we can get the President next year.

(05-10-2018 10:17 PM)nj alum Wrote:  https://scdbwiki.swem.wm.edu/wiki/index....t_Speakers

Doesn't look like we've ever had a sitting President give a commencement speech.

Second oldest school, 2 1/2 hours from DC.

Maybe we can get the President next year.

Sure, and we can have our resident ethics professor give the introduction.

We are going to do great things here at William & Mary! Taylor, wheres Taylor...out there somewhere. Boy 300 years and still no NCAA berth. We are going to get that tournament. Its going to be great. Boy look at, you know theres people outside who want to be in here, but theres no space. They wont show you that. You know they said we couldnt do it, but 304 electoral votes. A lot of those votes didnt get counted. This college has produced a few good Americans, but also some really bad dudes. You invented the honor code but have lying and cheating. I noticed some sturdy walls around this campus. Maybe theres a few good colonial workers we can borrow to secure our border. They knew how to keep people out back in Thomas Jeffersons time, I think we can bring these jobs back to America and make our forefathers proud again.

He will say a few simple words about how to keep William & Mary great, thank the military, and extol the virtues of American jobs for American citizens. He might throw in a reference to God and the Wren cross.

Given his pre-presidential relationship with the African American community, he would be a good follow-up speaker to this year's festivities.

(05-10-2018 10:17 PM)nj alum Wrote:  https://scdbwiki.swem.wm.edu/wiki/index....t_Speakers

The 1941 commencement speech was given by General George Marshall. That might have been interesting to hear. (For you non-history majors, that was before Pearl Harbor). :o). The speech in 1942 was given by an Admiral King -- we can probably guess what he had to say.

(05-10-2018 10:17 PM)nj alum Wrote:  https://scdbwiki.swem.wm.edu/wiki/index....t_Speakers

Doesn't look like we've ever had a sitting President give a commencement speech.

Second oldest school, 2 1/2 hours from DC.

Maybe we can get the President next year.

Bush in '95

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Sitting President.

Bush was former President.

Twas a hot one today. I'll be interested to see if they do it at Zable again next year or not. Better capacity, but the heat was brutal.

It might have hit triple digits today. Not a lot of shade there midday.

Thankfully they put water bottles under each of the graduating seniors seats, probably saved more than a few people from passing out. But a decent amount of people left as the ceremony was going on, due to how hot it was.

There were also water stations throughout Zable for the non-students. Props to Mark Warner for keeping his speech to a tight 6 minutes.

Why not use Kaplan for graduation ceremonies? It’s got AC. You could appeal to the diversity mob with specialized ceremonies. One for African Americans, Hispanics, transgenders, Gay/ Lesbian, grad schools. Each could have their own speakers. Then there would be room for the rest. This is done at other schools. This way the weather would be a non issue.

It's really not that big a deal. Many universities have an outdoor graduation. Use the Hall as a weather fall back. My impression from social media monitoring was that it was a non issue with graduates and their families.

(05-13-2018 04:23 PM)SoCal Frank Wrote:  Why not use Kaplan for graduation ceremonies? It’s got AC. You could appeal to the diversity mob with specialized ceremonies. One for African Americans, Hispanics, transgenders, Gay/ Lesbian, grad schools. Each could have their own speakers. Then there would be room for the rest. This is done at other schools. This way the weather would be a non issue.

This was the first year it wasn't at W&M Hall/Kaplan Arena. My assumption is that all the weather pros and cons had been taken into consideration when deciding to change.