Just when you were done figuring out who the guy putting everyone to sleep during last year’s commencement was (hint: the Surgeon General), the President’s Office and Board of Trustees decided to challenge you with another difficult riddle: Who is Leon Panetta?
Well, besides being honored with the title of commencement speaker, Panetta is a 67-year-old former congressman, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, and is now the director of the Panetta Institute, which aims for a bipartisan study of public policy.
Wait, don’t go to sleep just yet. It gets even better. In another shady move, those in President Richard Freeland’s office, along with the out-of-touch Board of Trustees, decided Clarence Jones, chair of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) deserves an honorary degree.
Those administrators who had a hand in picking speakers and degree recipients are not stupid, but neither are the students.
It’s just too coincidental that the BRA is the same governmental body that reviews Northeastern’s proposed changes to its Institutional Master Plan.
And it’s too coincidental Northeastern has to submit a Public Notification Form this month to the BRA and the community informing them the university wants to build high-rise towers on North and Camden Lots, something community members have been displeased with and are planning to fight all the way to the BRA and City Hall.
But there’s more. One of the chairmen of the tenth-largest employer of NU co-ops, Michael Ruettgers of the EMC Corp., is also receiving an honorary degree.
Hey, isn’t Richard Egan, the Egan Center Egan, a co-founder of the same company? Yes, he is.
Commencement Coordinator Linda Bekerian said the President’s Office spearheads the search effort for the commencement speaker. Special Assistant to the President Dr. Kay Onan said when choosing a speaker, those involved look for someone with close ties to NU.
She’s right, it is important — especially when you are trying to find a generous donor for a multi-purpose athletic field on the edge of campus near the Roxbury community.
There is still hope for commencement, besides that it might end early.
The gurus in the President’s Office and at the Board of Trustees are giving Maine Sen. Olympia Snow an honorary degree. But why not ask Snow, who represents a part of the country where many students are from, to speak and not just receive an honorary degree and watch the rest of commencement.
For whatever reason, Sen. Snowe, one of only 14 female senators in Congress, will be watching Eric Lander, founder of The Board Institute (whatever that is), speak during the afternoon commencement ceremony.
It seems Northeastern’s administration has yet again managed to outsell itself, and students are going to have to try to stay awake during commencement.
