The word of the day is “commencement,” a timely choice since in the coming weeks, graduates of our high schools and colleges will become acquainted with all the things this word entails.
The basic definition is “to begin or start,” but the word is rarely, if ever used in that simple context. It is used almost exclusively to describe the ceremony that comes after a student completes his/her studies.
When that happens, the students don caps and gowns, sit in folding chairs, listen to various people talk, then file across the stage, in alphabetical order, shake hands with a dean and collect their diploma as the family looks on with pride.
At large schools, these ceremonies can take hours. Roughly 3,000 names will be called during Mississippi State’s commencement ceremony next week.
These ceremonies are as old as organized education itself. They used to be called “graduation ceremonies,” but that term suggests and end, a finish. So the term has been replaced with the more optimistic “commencement,” which, as the definition states, is a beginning, not an end.
That’s appropriate. Once a student crosses the stage, she can “commence” to paying off that five-figure debt she owes in student loans or he can “commence” to finding a good job, which unfortunately for many Mississippians means he will “commence” to packing to move out of state where most of the good jobs exist.
Before any of that happens, though, the students must sit quietly and listen to the “commencement speaker,” whose job it is to inspire graduates to go out and “change the world.”
Apparently, for generations, graduates have pretty much ignored that challenge because the very next year, a new commencement speaker will challenge the next group of graduates to change the world, the previous graduates having failed to achieve that task.
Someday, maybe the graduates will actually change the world and graduates of the ensuing class could be exposed to a new charge, maybe “OK. The world has been changed. Big shout-out to the Class of 2016 for that, by the way. Now, Class of 2017, DON’T MESS IT UP!”
As you might suspect, I’m not a big fan of commencement speakers. Generally, the only thing achieved by their presence is to make long ceremonies even longer. The speeches are rarely memorable, let alone inspiring, and the pool of really engaging speakers seems to dried up.
Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves will deliver the commencement address at Mississippi University for Women this year. There won’t be an open eye in the whole place, I bet.
The students would likely be better informed, and more inspired, by watching YouTube cat videos for an hour instead, which is what I suspect most of them will be doing by the time Reeves clears his throat and commences.
Yet, once in a great while, some speakers are actually worth listening to. Just last year, Doris Taylor, an MUW grad and ground-breaking medical researcher, left students in awe.
So, yes, commencement speakers, on rare occasions, can inspire and encourage. Speeches such as those by George Saunders (Syracuse, 2013), David Foster Wallace (Kenyon College, 2005), J.K. Rowling (Harvard, 2008) and Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005) have endured and continue to inspire.
But for the most part, commencement speeches are competitions to see how many cliches can be crowded into an hour-long speech to students whose main interest is walking across the stage, picking up their diplomas and commencing the change the world — once they get a job and start paying off those student loans, of course.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.