What’s in a name?

To the Editor:

After reading Andrew Chapin’s article concerning commencement speaker British Robinson, I’m worried that the criterion for judging a commencement speaker at Fairfield seems to rest only on instant name recognition. I’ll readily admit that I didn’t recognize her name either, but happily, through the miracles of modern technology that even I can access in rural Alaska, this doesn’t stop me from finding out what she might have to say to graduating students.

Fairfield students are obsessed with brand names, and perhaps I can only say this because I’ve been wearing the same parka and snow boots for the last seven months, but a big name is just that-a big name. It has no bearing on the quality of speech that Robinson will give.

It seems to me like British Robinson is a perfect choice for commencement speaker. She is familiar with the Jesuit tradition and how it specifically applies to Fairfield so that what she says will be relevant to students who have just spent four years there. Moreover, she now works as a US Global AIDS Coordinator. I know something like coordinating an effort to halt a global health epidemic of massive proportions doesn’t have the same pizzazz as a singer/songwriter, athlete, or lame-duck politician, but I don’t know, it just seems more important to me.

I’d like also to point out that the Jesuit tradition encompasses much more than “bringing down the house at mass each week.” I have no idea how Robinson is connected to the Fairfield Jesuit Community, but it’s entirely likely that she hasn’t anything to say about attending mass. She might have something to say about social justice, or community, or academics, all of which have a lot to do with the Jesuit identity and which the student body can only benefit by hearing.

In any case, it seems illogical to me to judge a speaker before she has spoken. Let that be her only criterion.

Sincerely,

Eileen Arnold ’05

Editor’s note: the author is editor emeritus of the commentary section of The Mirror. She is currently working in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Alaska.