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Couric to deliver Commencement address at BU

At the Senior Breakfast on Friday morning, President Robert Brown confirmed speculation that CBS evening news anchor Katie Couric will deliver the Boston University Commencement address on May 22.

“You may know me from my guest starring role on ‘Glee.’ I’m very happy to say I’m your commencement speaker this year,” Couric said in a video message to BU seniors screened at the breakfast. “I know, try and contain yourself – it really is the best thing though since there was a Taco Bell in Warren Towers.”

In the video, Couric encouraged graduating seniors to Tweet or email questions they would like to hear answered at commencement.

“I thought I’d ask you what you’d like to hear,” she said in the video. “I think this idea will help us get a little closer. Like when Girl Talk came to [the George Sherman Union].”

BU officials will choose the questions she answers, so students should avoid sending “sketchy” questions, Couric said.

Couric, who will leave her position as a CBS Evening News anchor in June, was the first female solo anchor of a weekday network evening news broadcast. Before she joined the CBS team, she served as co-anchor of NBC’s “Today Show” for 15 years.

She is one of five people selected to receive an honorary degree at Commencement.

“A committee comprised of BU faculty, administration, deans and trustees determines a list of honorary degree candidates who they would like to extend an invitation to,” said Thomas Testa, BU’s assistant vice president for public relations, in an email. “The type of honorary degree that is handed out to each individual is determined based on the field of candidates. Nominations can be made by the committee to extend to one of those from the list, the invite to be the main convocation speaker.”

Many members of the graduating class said they were pleased with Couric’s selection as the commencement speaker.

“She was definitely a good choice,” said Matt Stern, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “She is a big name in the news and a great, unbiased reporter. I met her earlier this year, so I’m happy she was chosen.”

CAS senior Richard Cipolla said he does not know much about Couric, but feels she would give a good address.

“I don’t know that much about her, so I don’t have any strong feelings about it,” he said. “I think she’ll give a good speech though, which is what it’s about.”

CAS senior Julianna Kadar said Couric is “very interesting and a very real person.”

“She’s very funny and pretty personable, which makes me think she’ll be a good commencement speaker,” Kadar said.

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2 Comments

  1. Remember that time the Class of 2009 had a local Congressman who gave an awful speech that he probably gives at, like, 30% of area high schools every June? And that time BC had Kanye and Tufts had the Dropkick Murphys/Common and we had Three6Mafia and Cobra Starship? #bitter #wasteof200k

  2. I feel like I’m constantly looking for interesting things to read about a variety of subjects, but I manage to include your site among my reads every day because you have interesting entries that I look forward to. Here’s hoping there’s a lot more top-notch material coming!