Commencement season is in full swing as area graduates prepare to toss their caps to the skies and their hopes to the future. The Air Force Academy is preparing to welcome Vice President Kamala Harris to the under-construction Falcon Stadium at month’s end, a graduation unlike few others in our nation, and one that concludes with a spectacular air show courtesy of the famed Thunderbirds. Sunday’s graduation at Colorado College promises to be a much smaller affair, but school officials are excited to welcome back to campus professor and novelist Frieda Ekotto, a member of the class of 1986, and the first African-American woman to graduate from the school.
The Lorna Goodison Collegiate Professor of Afro-American and African Studies, Comparative Literature, and Francophone Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Ekotto will deliver the commencement address. In this age of Ted Talks and popular podcasts, the graduation speech has become something of a public relations bonanza for colleges. Big names who come to smaller schools can garner national headlines.
It hasn’t always been the case. Years ago, it was the graduates who spoke, dazzling the gathered and showing off their hard-earned oratory skills that were cultivated the last four years or more. Philosophical debates between students were also featured as part of graduation ceremonies.
But that began to change toward the end of the 19th century as the emphasis on the spoken word and speaking skills in colleges.
