Ohio University seniors will have the opportunity to voice their opinion to help determine who they would like to have speak at Spring Commencement on April 29.
The Student Commencement Committee, led by the Student Alumni Board, will send out an email to seniors where they can vote from the list of speakers.
“We have narrowed it down to five names, and then soon I will email it out to the senior student body where they will vote,” Makenzie Olaker, the SAB President and a senior studying accounting, said.
The Student Commencement Committee, which is comprised of members of the Homecoming Court, met three times within January to discuss the potential nominees.
Olaker said having a survey is a way to make sure students have a say in the commencement speaker. Olaker added that she is not sure of the exact date the poll will be open for seniors to vote, but it will probably be within the next two weeks.
When the committee met, they tried to get a list of who they would want to speak at commencement. To choose a speaker, the committee has been researching alumni.
Last year, OU seniors had the chance vote on their top five preferred commencement speakers from a list of 16 nominees.
Bill Brand, president of the cable channel HSN and chief marketing officer of HSN, Inc., was the 2016 Spring Commencement speaker despite not receiving the most votes. About 380 people voted for a commencement speaker, and each one of them voted for actor Ed O’Neil in their top five.
SAB does not directly see the results from the poll, Olaker said.
“(SAB) will give whatever the top (list of candidates is) to the President's Office,” Jenny Hall-Jones, dean of students, said.
The President's Office ultimately decides who the Spring Commencement speaker will be. David Descutner, who will be serving as the interim president at that time, will be presiding over commencement, Hall-Jones said.
The committee wants the speaker to be an OU graduate, she said.
“We think that there is a Bobcat family connection, so that is something we really stress with these meetings,” Olaker said.
The Student Commencement Committee has also been watching interviews of candidates.
“We want to see if they would be an invigorating speaker that would kind of engage the whole entire OU campus,” Olaker said. “This year a lot of our Homecoming members really wanted to focus on our commitment to diversity, so that was something we were also looking into a lot this year.”
Emelia Douglas, a senior studying games and animation, thinks the seniors being able to choose a speaker is a good idea.
“Having any input at all is a good thing,” Douglas said. “It is nice that they at least give us a choice to vote instead of just deciding for us.”
