(05-23-2023 11:09 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  Rice does not confer ceremonial degrees, and my understanding is that often hampers who we can get.

I just don't see that this would be much of an issue for truly high profile speakers. I mean, I wouldn't think (just pulling high profile names) Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, Ben Bernanke or Alan Dershowitz would care about an honorary degree from Rice.

If this is truly the case, perhaps we need to rethink this. We seem willing to rething many more important things.

Quote:We have not, historically, pulled great speakers year after year. David Brooks was a speaker recently.

Which is what suggests to me that we have an institutional problem and not merely one of 'student interest'.

Quote:Something tells me a student on the committee nominated her and then she was selected.

Sure... but I suspect plenty of other, higher profile people were also suggested. If this was truly the best we suggested, I'm wondering why we didn't set the bar higher. I mean, even if the goal was a political reflection of the students... how about Elizabeth Dole, Nancy Pelosi or others? While I find KJP more impressive than AOC, at least AOC would be in a position to speak her mind and not need to represent her boss. If she said something that was counter to Biden, she would hear about it next week.

(05-23-2023 11:28 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(05-23-2023 11:09 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  Rice does not confer ceremonial degrees, and my understanding is that often hampers who we can get.

I just don't see that this would be much of an issue for truly high profile speakers. I mean, I wouldn't think (just pulling high profile names) Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, Ben Bernanke or Alan Dershowitz would care about an honorary degree from Rice.

If this is truly the case, perhaps we need to rethink this. We seem willing to rething many more important things.

Quote:We have not, historically, pulled great speakers year after year. David Brooks was a speaker recently.

Which is what suggests to me that we have an institutional problem and not merely one of 'student interest'.

Quote:Something tells me a student on the committee nominated her and then she was selected.

Sure... but I suspect plenty of other, higher profile people were also suggested. If this was truly the best we suggested, I'm wondering why we didn't set the bar higher. I mean, even if the goal was a political reflection of the students... how about Elizabeth Dole, Nancy Pelosi or others? While I find KJP more impressive than AOC, at least AOC would be in a position to speak her mind and not need to represent her boss. If she said something that was counter to Biden, she would hear about it next week.

Agreed that this is reflective of the process and limitations imposed upon the student selection committee and not a desire to have some partisan, relatively “low-level” hack as I think many on here are suggesting. You were asking how she was on the short list, after all.

We seem to be unable, or unwilling, to pull in big names for commencement. It’s why I was not surprised that she was selected. But plenty of posters have expressed their dismay here.

(05-23-2023 11:59 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  Agreed that this is reflective of the process and limitations imposed upon the student selection committee and not a desire to have some partisan, relatively “low-level” hack as I think many on here are suggesting.

Whether or not there was a desire to have a partisan, low-level hack, that is precisely what they ended up with.

(05-23-2023 10:28 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(05-23-2023 10:01 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(05-23-2023 09:50 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(05-23-2023 09:27 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(05-23-2023 09:26 AM)Rice93 Wrote:  Or the whims of a student selection committee?

If they are doing the selecting, they are one of the powers. Given the way we have selected Homecoming Queen in the past, I would rather have had a refrigerator than KJP. (and I respected her predecessor, Psaki, so it is NOT just knee jerk politics, and I would NOT have approved of Spicer as commencement speaker).

I guess so... but when you said powers-that-be it struck me that you meant BOD/administration.

I include them, but also the groups they grant power to.

Kind of like blaming the football coach's game plan choices on the Administration that hired the AD that hired the coach.

It seems more like blaming the administration for the student-athlete that fumbled the snap.

So you HAVe been reading the Parliament. Yes, that is exactly what we have been doing. Except I took it up the line from the athlete to the play calling.


At least one person here would say the fumble would be due to a lack of prepararion, which falls on the coaching, which falls on….

(05-23-2023 11:59 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  Agreed that this is reflective of the process and limitations imposed upon the student selection committee and not a desire to have some partisan, relatively “low-level” hack as I think many on here are suggesting. You were asking how she was on the short list, after all.

We seem to be unable, or unwilling, to pull in big names for commencement. It’s why I was not surprised that she was selected. But plenty of posters have expressed their dismay here.

I'm trying not to make this especially partisan... I don't need to insult her to know that she is not the calibre of speaker that a top 20 school should (imo) want nor attract. It's not much of an insult to say that while clearly an educated and hard working person, she isn't speaking her own mind in her job, nor would I expect that she would do so in a public speech.... so we're not even really getting her 'personally'... we're getting her professionally.... which all but eliminates her personal qualities.... even if someone finds them laudable as opposed to merely identifiable.

My question though should have been obvious that I wasn't asking what the nomination and then selection process was... That seems rather self-evident. My question was why, given the above, someone might feel that the official spokesperson for the Biden administration was a high value suggestion. I can think of a dozen people in the current administration or congress whom I think would be of a higher profile, even if well below 'Biden' or 'Harris'.

John McEnroe spoke at Stanford this year...
Tom Hanks at Harvard...
Hillary spoke at Yale in 2018... they don't often have a speaker.

If we wanted to go political as a statement, Kaitlyn Jenner or even Lia Thomas would have been more interesting/be someone who would speak their own mind. Janet Yellen, numerous others. If we weren't going political, the spectrum is literally massive.

(05-23-2023 11:28 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  While I find KJP more impressive than AOC, at least AOC would be in a position to speak her mind and not need to represent her boss. If she said something that was counter to Biden, she would hear about it next week.

I understand her job is to spin everything in the favor of her boss,, and blame the previous Administration for everything, but I find the way she does that job much more irritating than her predecessor.

Although I too was ticked off at the selection of this year’s commencement speaker, I learned some background that may explain her selection. My wife and I are good friends with a gentleman who heads up one of the largest construction companies in town. You will see their company name on most buildings being constructed at Rice, as well as around the city. They also donated and built the downtown YMCA. Being a George Tech grad and long-time donor there, our friend has gotten to know President DesRoches (a long-time Georgia Tech Professor) very well over the last several years. In fact, he now considers President DesRoches a dear friend. President DesRoches invited him and his wife to attend the ceremony whereby he was named Rice’s first Black President. A wonderful man and long-time Republican, our friend and his wife came by our house about 6 weeks ago – so that they could catch on how things were going with my wife and I. The first thing he and I talked about was Ms. Jean-Pierre being selected as the commencement speaker. He was as upset as I was. However, he also shared about his becoming very close friends with the President, and how much he liked and respected him.

He shared a reasonable theory as to why Ms. Jean-Pierre may have been picked. She actually has a personal history very similar to that of President DesRoches. They both were originally from Haiti, both spent their High School years in Queens, New York, and both were recently promoted to prestigious positions. I have to think somebody at Rice (maybe even President DesRoches himself) knew about those similarities and decided having someone with a similar background and success story as President DesRoches made sense as the commencement speaker during his first year in office. If that were the case, I guess I can understand the selection – and assume it was not done solely because people supported Ms. Jean-Pierre’s political beliefs.

In the interest of fair play, I decided I would listen to her commencement address. I had some free time this afternoon as I was waiting at the Honda Dealership for them to finish servicing my car. I went ahead and listened to her entire address. I actually thought she did a good job of sticking with the standard “congratulations and now go out there and live an inspired life” speech. There were a couple of “rolling my eyes” moments, but nothing too bad. I’m still not a fan of hers or her boss, but her speech was reasonably neutral, politically, in my opinion. I have to say, I was surprised.

This whole issue reminds me of when my sister graduated from Wellesley College back in 1985. My parents flew to Boston for the graduation ceremony. As I assume they still do, Wellesley’s commencement speaker back then was decided on by an all-student committee. The previous fall Geraldine Ferraro had run as the first female Vice-Presidential candidate, partnering with Fritz Mondale. Being an all-girls school, the committee decided to invite Ferraro to be their commencement speaker, which she agreed to. I still vividly remember my Dad’s recollections of that speech and the crowd’s reaction. His assumption was that Ferraro would be a gracious speaker and provide an inspired speech about women’s accomplishments and all the opportunities now available for the graduating class. Instead, she spent the entire time bashing President Reagan policies. It was a 100 percent anti-Republican political rant. The funniest part of the story was how all the Wellesley girls would stand up and cheer numerous times throughout the address, while the outraged parents (i.e., the ones footing the bill) were bitterly heckling amongst themselves. For my parents, who spent most of their life savings putting my sister through 4 years there, it was the most disgusting commencement address they had ever witnessed. My sister, an indoctrinated Democrat ever since attending Wellesley, loved it.

I share all this, just to point out that it could have been much worse than what we ended up hearing from Ms. Jean-Pierre.

She's not originally from Haiti.

Still a great story, so I don't know why her spin doctors feel the need to embellish further by implying that she's from Haiti.

(05-23-2023 10:12 PM)Minnewaska Owl Wrote:  Although I too was ticked off at the selection of this year’s commencement speaker, I learned some background that may explain her selection.
...
I share all this, just to point out that it could have been much worse than what we ended up hearing from Ms. Jean-Pierre.

Makes sense. Whatever the reason, it is something that I cannot support. Rice University has become too woke for my taste.

(05-24-2023 07:10 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  She's not originally from Haiti.

Still a great story, so I don't know why her spin doctors feel the need to embellish further by implying that she's from Haiti.

I don't think it's spin, but a misunderstanding. She was born to Haitian parents in Martinique (per Wikipedia).

I made a note of this connection in Post #18, because the Thresher noted the similarities: Similar to DesRoches, Jean-Pierre is of Haitian descent and moved to Queens, NY with her family at a young age.

“Like many of you, Karine has broken barriers to get where she is today,” DesRoches said. “This part of her story was especially attractive to me and to the members of the student committee who nominated her to be this year’s commencement speaker.”

https://www.ricethresher.org/article/202...nt-speaker

(05-24-2023 09:57 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(05-24-2023 07:10 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  She's not originally from Haiti.

Still a great story, so I don't know why her spin doctors feel the need to embellish further by implying that she's from Haiti.

I don't think it's spin, but a misunderstanding. She was born to Haitian parents in Martinique (per Wikipedia).

I made a note of this connection in Post #18, because the Thresher noted the similarities: Similar to DesRoches, Jean-Pierre is of Haitian descent and moved to Queens, NY with her family at a young age.

“Like many of you, Karine has broken barriers to get where she is today,” DesRoches said. “This part of her story was especially attractive to me and to the members of the student committee who nominated her to be this year’s commencement speaker.”

https://www.ricethresher.org/article/202...nt-speaker

Oops - sorry. I did not do a good enough job of going back through the entire thread. But, it makes me feel good that my independent source (who I know does not read the Thresher) had similar thoughts.

surprise

(05-26-2023 10:09 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  surprise

That’s the kind of commencement speaker you get by offering honorary degrees. The “degree” itself is pretty worthless, but it can look good on a resume or political flyer.

At least somebody else got a worse speaker.

(05-29-2023 12:19 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

Quote:This is Fatima Mohammed, the chosen speaker for CUNY Law School’s commencement. Her speech started relatively normally. Then it went over the edge, calling the law itself evidence of “white supremacy”

“I chose CUNY School of Law for its articulated mission [as one of the] few legal institutions… to recognize that the law is a manifestation of White supremacy that continues to oppress and suppress people in this nation and around the world,” she said. She claimed that they joined the institution so they could work “to lift the facade of legal neutrality and confront the systems of oppression that wreck [sic] violence on them, systems of oppression created to feed an empire with a ravenous appetite for destruction and violence.”

That’s America she’s attacking as the evil empire there.

Mohammed then went on to praise CUNY Law for endorsing the BDS movement and attack Israel for “murdering” people, even as she attack “CUNY Central” for continuing to train and cooperate with the”fascist NYPD” and the military. Mohammed claimed that “daily” “brown and black men are being murdered by the State at Rikers.” Rikers is New York City’s largest jail. She claimed the “murder of black men like Jordan Neely by a white man on the MTA” was “dignified” by politicians like Mayor Eric Adams and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Mohammed said their “joy” should be the fuel for their “fight” against “capitalism, racism, imperialism, and Zionism around the world.” She then spoke about revolution.

No one person will save the world. No single movement will liberate the masses. Those who brought the ferocity of the violence, those who carry the revolution, the people, the masses, those who brought the ferocity of the violence, those who need our protection. They will carry this revolution. The revolution that lives so loudly despite not being televised. No longer are we going to capitulate to oppressors. No longer are we going to put our hope in their depraved consciousness.

She then quoted Malcolm X and said that they demanded the rights of being a “human being” and that they would bring this “day” into existence “by any means necessary.”

“Greater empires of destruction have fallen before and so will these,” she declared. “So to the class of 2023, the fight begins now.”

What’s perhaps as troubling as her words themselves is how it’s embraced by the audience. You can even see at least one of the officials on stage clapping as well. The problem here is how prevalent this view is, and how many radicalized teachers, colleges, and universities attack the foundations of this country because of their radical leftist views. CUNY is also a state publicly-funded school that is cool with all this. T

his speech was on May 12 but the video didn’t come out before because CUNY realized this would let people know what was going on at their school and they pulled it from Youtube. But then they released it after they were criticized for hiding what she said.

Republicans called out the evil speech.

Democrats of course seem typically silent about this attack on the country, many of them likely agree with it.

We recognize the war when it’s formally declared, when it involves weapons, when it’s overseas. But do we recognize the declared war against us here in our midst, by those that would seek to destroy what we are, who see the very nature of what we are as a nation as evil because it doesn’t meet their flawed, radical views? We fought wars against this ideology when it was overseas. But now it’s here, all around us, waiting to swallow us whole and sowing chaos on every front.

Do we recognize the war when it’s here?

Link

(05-30-2023 07:10 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Mohammed said their “joy” should be the fuel for their “fight” against “capitalism, ...

Seems like the Colorado Teachers Union is not alone in hating capitalism.

Numbers is right - this is worse than KJP, if not in direction then in magnitude.

Maybe I should have said about KJP,

"I mean, you got the first mainstream Haitian-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking gal. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

(ETA that's intended as a tongue in cheek jab at Biden... not KJP... although like MANY MANY MANY Hatian Americans, she is clearly artiuculate and bright and although this is subjective, I think most would agree she is generally 'nice looking'...

(05-30-2023 09:38 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Maybe I should have said about KJP,

"I mean, you got the first mainstream Haitian-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking gal. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

(ETA that's intended as a tongue in cheek jab at Biden... not KJP... although like MANY MANY MANY Hatian Americans, she is clearly artiuculate and bright and although this is subjective, I think most would agree she is generally 'nice looking'...

Is this a parody of Biden's comments about Obama?

(05-30-2023 09:41 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(05-30-2023 09:38 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Maybe I should have said about KJP,

"I mean, you got the first mainstream Haitian-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking gal. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

(ETA that's intended as a tongue in cheek jab at Biden... not KJP... although like MANY MANY MANY Hatian Americans, she is clearly artiuculate and bright and although this is subjective, I think most would agree she is generally 'nice looking'...

Is this a parody of Biden's comments about Obama?

Yep. I copy/pasted the verbatim quote and change African to Haitian, and guy to gal.

(05-30-2023 10:50 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(05-30-2023 09:41 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(05-30-2023 09:38 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Maybe I should have said about KJP,

"I mean, you got the first mainstream Haitian-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking gal. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

(ETA that's intended as a tongue in cheek jab at Biden... not KJP... although like MANY MANY MANY Hatian Americans, she is clearly artiuculate and bright and although this is subjective, I think most would agree she is generally 'nice looking'...

Is this a parody of Biden's comments about Obama?

Yep. I copy/pasted the verbatim quote and change African to Haitian, and guy to gal.

So, Biden's a racist, too? CLEAN?