Christina Domenico |Graduation and Google do mix

It's that time of year again. What's the beginning of spring without a column about graduation speakers? With 76 days to go before the Class of 2009 becomes the newest group of Penn alumni, the senior class is forming expectations about this year's Commencement speaker, Eric Schmidt, Google chairman and chief executive officer.

Without the title in front of his name, Schmidt is nearly unrecognizable. Bespectacled and grinning in his head shot, he could easily be mistaken for a Penn professor. Unlike Larry Page or Sergey Brin, Google's co-founders and all-around cool guys, Schmidt's a seasoned professional who stepped in to turn the Web site into the center of the universe. Literally. Unlike politicians and celebrities who graced the podium at past ceremonies, his work shapes the way we live on the Web - and that matters to every one of us.

So, whoever you are - a College, Wharton, Engineering or Nursing student (or some combination thereof) - Schmidt's contribution to the world as Google CEO will affect your life. It already has.

In spite of his astounding transformation of Google, the senior class's reaction remains mixed. Many students (myself included) didn't immediately recognize the implications of Google's CEO standing before us - but after some consideration, we realized that this could be pretty cool. After all, Google hires a number of Penn grads every year, so he will be some students' ultimate boss.

Wharton senior Clayton Smith needed some time to realize that he's happy with the choice this year. "When I first read it, I was like, 'who is that, are you kidding me?' The more and more I thought about it, I thought that Google CEO is probably one of the top three positions in the business world," he said.

It's not surprising to find this reaction - I'd say it's fairly common this year. A fair proportion of seniors have likely taken Smith's approach, although another group could probably sum up their thoughts with a passive "meh." The past three years brought big, recognizable names like Jodie Foster, James Baker and Michael Bloomberg, and this year we find ourselves anticipating a speech from someone we don't instantly know.

Of course, there are always some haters out there. If you take the time to visit penn09.com, you'll find that an anonymous student took liberty with their caps-lock key to protest the decision - not just once, but four times - declaring that "NO ONE WANTS THE CEO OF GOOGLE." It suffices to say that's incorrect (and immature).

So sorry, buddy, but you're gonna have to live with it (or just skip out on Commencement, I'm sure your parents would love that). Although not everyone's thrilled, Schmidt's as good a pick as anyone else.

As Smith said, "Everybody has their ideal person who they'd want to speak. But I think this is a pretty good compromise that everyone should be happy with."

Smith cited President Barack Obama and J.K. Rowling as his top choices for Commencement speaker, but he acknowledged that contracting Obama for the job would be "pretty unrealistic."

Big names certainly clutter the list of past speakers, but that's not to say a few lesser-knowns don't pop up here and there. For every Bill Cosby there's a Jane Alexander. (I really hope you don't know who she is.) What's important to keep in mind is that a person's popularity or newsworthiness doesn't diminish their accomplishments. Though Schmidt doesn't have the star power of Bono, he practically owns the Internet.

I could go on with elevating the importance of Internet technology as we work our way through an upheaval in American societal, cultural and business transactions and why that makes Schmidt the best person to talk to us this year about entering the changing landscape. I'm sure, though, that some of you out there will still dismiss Schmidt for not being a comedian, celebrity or powerful politician. For those disappointed College students, John Legend will help you through the weekend at least - sorry, everyone else.

As we prepare ourselves to pop the Penn bubble, we should probably be happy to accept any advice given to us. In this case, I'd rather hear what this head honcho has to say rather than, say, that guy who runs AIG.

Christina Domenico is a College senior from North Wildwood, N.J. The Undersized Undergrad appears on Tuesdays. Her email address is domenico@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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