For the second time in four years, University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx will address the class of 2008.
Seniors will have the treat of hearing the New England area’s master fund-raiser preach “Jesuit values,” a concept just as ambiguous as the word diversity at Fairfield. At least the seniors will recognize the name of their commencement speaker.
The decision seemed like a scramble move after some no name with Jesuit ties passed on the opportunity to address the senior class. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
“At a number of institutions, it’s customary for the president to address the graduating class, and there are no other speakers at the commencement apart from the valedictorian,” von Arx said via e-mail. “I think it’s good for the president to do this occasionally and plan to continue to do so in the future (but not every year).” Students expecting big names of the past, which included Tom Brokaw, Billy Joel, Cokie Roberts and Strobe Talbott, must have forgotten von Arx’s convenient and thrifty turn away from well-known commencement speakers.
In a letter sent to the University community in the fall of 2005, von Arx proposed a change in the pool of commencement speakers who are considered. “Rather than invite famous individuals who do not know the University, I recommended that we focus on those who have a close relationship to Fairfield and can speak to our Jesuit identity,” von Arx said in the 2005 letter.
Do the students even know what their “Jesuit identity” is? It certainly has nothing to do with beer Olympics, kicking back in a lawn chair, paying your neighbor to write papers for you or taking a mulligan on a class. Where service to others, community involvement -outside of drinking on the Point – self-respect and benevolence to our peers fits into the busy, superficial college lives each and every one of us lead is simple: It doesn’t. The University has once again put its interests before that of the students, similar to its relationship with FUSA. This affirms the fact that Fairfield loves the checks our parents write, but could care less about the sentiments of the student body.
“We’ve definitely been shafted,” said Meaghan Callahan ’08.
“Why is he our speaker when he speaks anyway?” said Lena Carlucci ’08, in relation to the president’s address of the graduating class.
“The school disappoints us on a regular basis,” said Whitney Maus ’08. “Why don’t you [the University] kick us in the face on the way out?”
In handicapping the field of prospective commencement speakers to those that specifically embody whatever it means to be a Jesuit, Fairfield ends up with people like British Robinson. In 2006, Robinson, who was senior advisor for public partnerships in the office of U.S. Global Aids coordinator, gave a speech on how she almost got breast cancer. If we lived in a world of almosts, the Patriots would have won the Superbowl.
Last year’s speaker, Fr. Thomas Regan, was articulate and had a message that was generally well received by the graduating class. I don’t care if the speaker is a Jesuit, a Marianist, a Buddhist or an atheist; I care about what they are saying in relation to the students.
Executive Assistant to the President Charles Allen, S.J., meanwhile, defended the choice of von Arx as commencement speaker. Allen chairs the committee, which makes recommendations on honorary degree recipients to von Arx, who then presents the candidates to the Board of Trustees.
“It is my understanding that at some institutions of higher learning, the president speaks every year,” said Allen.
“The president is interested in them [the students], cares about their future, and takes his responsibility to them seriously.”
My complaint stands in a system that discounts qualified speakers of diverse backgrounds and experiences just because they are not affiliated with the Jesuit order.
The students deserve better than their president giving them Jesuit tips for the future. He should be doing that during the year so when commencement comes, the students actually know who he is when he delivers the president’s address.
This is not an indictment of von Arx. Not only is he a highly educated man, but he is a wonderful orator as well. I am fully confident his commencement speech will be just as good as his last one three years ago.
However, this is just another example of the administration making decisions devoid of student sentiment in the name of their best interest.
Because they were freshman his first full year as president, von Arx can claim that he has a special bond with these students. To them, however, he is as anonymous as a Pritchard worker.
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