The Business of College Commencement Speaking

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Jun 11 2009 | 0 Comments

Right now it is commencement season. In the month of May, I knew someone who was graduating every weekend that month. While most people are thinking about graduation and the festivities surrounding it, some are thinking about that key speaker and how the university got them to speak there.

A lot of speakers will waive their fee for an “honorary” degree, meaning they get a degree from the school they are speaking at without actually doing the coursework.

However, even if speakers waive their fees, there are still a lot of fees and expenses that universities incur to get a speaker to their ceremony, and this isn’t limited to commencement ceremonies, it extends to other speaking engagements. For example, when Michelle Obama said that she would speak at the University of California-Merced’s commencement in the Spring, the school incurred an increase in commencement costs of about $600,000, with half of that used to broadcast her speech live to those who were unable to get into the ceremony.

So, why do universities go through such a process just to get a speaker at its commencement ceremony? Well, for the same reason a college does anything, likely to impress alumni to get them to donate more money and also to give the university some recognition.

Some colleges are coming under fire for the practices of paying a celebrity to come speak at its ceremony. Florida A&M spent $23,000 for Soledad O’Brian and Bill Clinton to speak at its ceremony. Both of the speakers waived their fees, but just getting Clinton to the school with his group and detail cost $17,000. While that may not seem like a huge amount of money, the school comes under fire because it announced this year that it would have to cut $13 to $15 million from its overall budget. So, the $23,000 used to pay for the speakers could have easily been spent for class room supplies or operating expenses.

I have come to believe that universities are in the business of trying to get money out of every single person who has ever stepped foot on the campus, they try doubly hard if you graduated from there. I have been told stories from people who have graduated and within a month of commencement; the university started calling to get them to donate. Alumni donations are important to the school, without donations it is difficult to fund certain projects. That is why, at least at my school, the school tries to accommodate alumni in any way possible…especially if that alumni is a known “donator.”

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Tags: commencement ceremonies, honorary degree, speakers