John McCain named 245th Commencement speaker

Arizona Sen. John McCain will address graduates at the 245th Commencement ceremony on May 21 at Franklin Field, University officials announced yesterday. McCain, 64, has been recognized nationally as a strong advocate for the reform of government institutions. The former Republican presidential candidate is the latest in a long line of distinguished Commencement speakers. He follows poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, who spoke at the Commencement ceremony for the Class of 2000. "I think John McCain is a terrific choice and I am very excited about it," University President Judith Rodin said in an e-mail statement. "He is a dynamic political leader who has devoted himself to government reform; and, as a human being he is an inspiration to us all for having endured the unthinkable and emerged committed to working for the common good." In addition to his distinguished career of political and public leadership, McCain is well-known for the more than five years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. McCain will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University at the Commencement. The selection of McCain marks a deviation from the Commencement speaker committee's earlier intent to select either poet and author Maya Angelou or retired opera singer Beverly Sills. Angelou and Sills were reported to comprise the short list of candidates last October. Senior Class President Ray Valerio, a student representative on the committee, said his most recent impression was that the committee was voting between the two women. McCain's selection also comes as a surprise after an e-mail was sent to the committee last summer encouraging the selection of a female speaker to celebrate 125 years of admitting women to Penn. Valerio commented that when the committee first started brainstorming on criteria and potential choices late last spring, they agreed that the speaker should be "academic yet also entertaining." "As far as I can recollect, McCain wasn't a top choice," he added. "It's a big shock to me," Valerio said. "I think he'll make a wonderful speaker, don't get me wrong. It just would have been nice to have more student input." Student reaction to the McCain announcement has been generally positive. "I wouldn't have had a politician as my first choice, but I think it will be interesting to hear what he has to say," College senior Melissa Duclos said. She added that since Penn students generally seem to be interested in politics, "more people at Penn will be interested in hearing McCain than someone like Maya Angelou." And Engineering senior David Rosensweig said, "I think McCain is a good choice, particularly in light of all the criticism Bush is getting now that he's taking action in office." Past Commencement speakers have included actor and comedian Bill Cosby in 1997 and former President Jimmy Carter in 1998. Reverend Dr. Floyd H. Flake, former U.S. Representative and the senior pastor of Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Queens, will be this year's speaker at the Baccalaureate Ceremony.

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