AU seniors may get more input regarding who speaks at their graduations with the recent passing of a bill in the Student Government Senate that establishes ways for students to e-mail their commencement speaker suggestions to the SG.
The bill, which passed unanimously in the Undergraduate Senate Nov. 15, directs SG Secretary Colin Meiselman to create an SG e-mail account for each school where students can e-mail their commencement speaker suggestions. Senators will meet with the deans of every school later in the year to notify them of the results and to take suggestions from university officials.
Class of 2010 Sen. Steve Dalton, who sponsored the bill, is working with Meiselman on the e-mail accounts.
Dalton said he and Meiselman will only be reading e-mails from AU student e-mail addresses. Dalton and Meiselman will check the students’ names against AU databases to make sure they are seniors, so only those who will be at the commencement speeches will have a say. If a student’s e-mail address does not have his or her name in it, Dalton and Meiselman will check the e-mail address against AU’s database of senior e-mails to confirm the account belongs to a senior.
Though Dalton and Meiselman will be checking that every e-mail submission comes from a senior, Dalton is also counting on non-senior students to refrain from giving input just on principle. He said he hopes freshman would know not to e-mail their suggestions for commencement speakers until the decision actually applies to them.
Dalton said he believes this method of choosing a commencement speaker is better than the way AU used to choose commencement speakers.
“The current system is that anyone can just walk into the dean’s office and make a suggestion — it’s not organized,” Dalton said. “We’re giving students the chance to talk to the administration without having to resort to people randomly showing up in the dean’s office.”
Dalton said it is more efficient to set up new e-mail accounts for student suggestions than to have students just directly e-mail their suggestions to their senators because most AU students do not know who their senators are. Senators also periodically quit or leave their posts to go abroad, which deactivates their e-mail accounts without giving students notice. Dalton said he wanted to establish e-mail accounts that could carry over time and through changes in the SG staff.
Though AU seniors will be getting more of a say in who they want for commencement speakers, it will be up to the administration to have the final say on who gets to speak, Dalton said. He noted two complications in getting speakers: money and availability. Since AU does not pay commencement speakers, that significantly limits the choices of who can come to the school, according to Dalton. AU also frequently schedules commencement on the same weekend as Mother’s Day, so many potential speakers may be unwilling to come to AU on a holiday.
Dalton said the students will have the biggest say in who speaks at AU’s commencements.
“Senators will talk on behalf of students to administration about their choices, but the Senators would not be putting in opinions themselves,” Dalton said. “I may not want Glenn Beck to speak at commencement, but if 700 students want him, they will get him.”
SG President Andy MacCracken said he is a big supporter of the new e-mail account system because it gives AU seniors a stronger voice in the commencement process than they have had in the past.
“The bigger issue is that students, for the most part, haven’t been a big part of the selection process,” MacCracken said. “More involvement can only be a good thing, which is why I support the proposal.”
You can reach this staff writer at jryan@theeagleonline.com.
