Annual Search Begins Shanahan on the Prowl for Graduation Speaker
By Peter Krawczyk ‘08
News Associate Editor
Commencement for the Class of 2007 is scheduled for Sunday, June 3rd—still over four months away—but the process of selecting a speaker has already begun.
Headmaster Edward J. Shanahan keeps a rolling list of potential speakers suggested by students, faculty, parents, trustees and alumni, but paramount to their selection is what Shanahan refers to as a “hook”—their connection to one or more members of the Choate community.
As Shanahan told The News, “Each year about this time I start to stroke the list and inquire as to whether the hook is still working and whether it’s reasonable to ask somebody to join us.”
Once the connections have been verified, Shanahan will then discuss viable candidates with the Board of Trustees, but the decision is ultimately the Headmaster’s.
Currently, Shanahan has selected “two or three” potential speakers he is considering for Commencement, but was unwilling to identify them publicly, citing concerns that plans could shift dramatically and that other candidates might potentially be deterred from speaking if they are aware they were not an initial top choice.
“The challenge is that you have to keep it highly confidential,” said Shanahan.
Commencement speakers in the fifteen years of Shanahan’s tenure represent a diverse and distinguished group, including late an anchor, Peter Jennings of ABC News, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, playwright Edward F. Albee ’46, U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, and New York firefighter and actor James Hanlon in 2002.
Last year’s speaker was Senator Christopher Dodd , the senior Connecticut Democrat and current chair of the Senate Banking Committee.
“I try to pay attention to gender and to different walks of life, so we’re not always choosing men, not always choosing journalists or politicians,” said Shanahan.
However, variation is only a small criterion compared to the connection, position and views of the speaker. Said Shanahan, “I like folks who are prepared to talk to kids about their responsibility to give back to society. Somebody who’s going to raise the sights of kids to think about their responsibility to engage the political process or being involved in and helping the welfare of others. … The privilege of this education carries with it an incredible responsibly to give that back.”
The primary concern of many seniors is that the program will continue the streak of divisive and politically-themed presentations relating to the Iraq War at the school this year.
“I don’t think Iraq fits into the theme of Commencement,” said Student Council Vice-President Mark Dee ’07. “Kids want to come and hear a standard speech like ‘the world is yours’, and I don’t think they want to have to deal with a political agenda…It’s really not the time or the place to discuss the situation in Iraq.”
However, the selection of a speaker is an almost-entirely proprietary process, and Shanahan has not ruled out the possibility.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “If I could get [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki here, I would. I’ve thought about it and it’s still kicking around.”
