OSU has just announced that the speaker for the Spring 2007 Commencement will be Bill Clinton (see link below). This means some extra security measures and long lines, but it will be worth it! Bill Clinton is quite an upgrade from Barbara Bush! I will see you on June 10th!
~ Holly
3 comments:
Pretty exciting!!!
He should be a good speaker... let's hope that they have the speaker issues worked out. Since the speaker will be so popular, we may want to arrive early.
Should be fun!!!
Wow! This is going to be an exciting day. Can't wait.
Mom Chalk
A little insight into the selection of Bill Clinton as the OSU Commencement Speaker:
-------------------
President Clinton has charged as much as $400,000 to speak to organizations, but he won't get a dime from Ohio State University.
Clinton has agreed to speak to the 7,500 students collecting OSU degrees at 1 p.m. June 10 at Ohio Stadium, as well as any member of the public who wants to attend the free event.
But as is OSU's practice, it won't pay him for the gig.
The 42nd U.S. president has been in demand as a speaker since he left office in 2001. He has collected fees that hover around $125,000 to $150,000 from companies and organizations.
He already has spoken at the University of Michigan's graduation ceremony this year and is scheduled to speak at four other colleges this month as well as at a pre-commencement event in June at Harvard University.
A committee of students, professors and other staff members chose Clinton as this year's graduation speaker after being turned down by comedian Jon Stewart last fall. The committee also asked Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in December but could not get a commitment from him in time, OSU spokeswoman Amy Murray said.
Ohio State has attracted nationally known speakers for spring commencement in the past, including President George W. Bush, comedian Bill Cosby, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and actor Christopher Reeve.
Murray said it isn't known whether Clinton's wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, also will attend. The topic of his speech also isn't known, Murray said.
While in office, Clinton visited Ohio State twice: in 1995 when his Midwest Economic Summit was held at the university and again while campaigning in 1996.
He and Vice President Al Gore spoke on the OSU Oval during the first visit, and Clinton spoke in St. John Arena during the second visit.
Post a Comment