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NewsvineSeniors are taking advantage of this fall’s highly charged political atmosphere to campaign for the selection of Bill Clinton as Commencement speaker. With a flyering campaign and a popular Facebook group, the movement has begun to gain momentum in its uphill battle against skeptics who doubt that Stanford could snag the 42nd president.
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“We have a large cross-section of alumni, GSBer’s, Med School students, Law School students and, most importantly, seniors who support Clinton for Commencement,” said senior Shane Walker, president of the Facebook group “Clinton for Commencement.” “Overall we’ve had over 500 people show explicit support, as well as others who wish us the best but assume it to be impossible. It is not.”
The group’s flyers list a number of recent grievances including a “sanitized Full Moon” and a “terrible football team.” Many people behind the movement argue that bagging Clinton would be a positive development in an otherwise dim school year.
“There’s a mentality that it never gets any better at Stanford,” Walker said. “Bill Clinton would give us something to look forward to at the end of the year. After so many setbacks and pull-backs from the year before, Clinton would be a shot in the arm for a class that deserves it.”
The initiative started to take shape in early October as a response to last year’s Commencement speaker, former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw.
“Sure Brokaw was ‘neat,’” Walker said. “But everyone knew the most recent and popular president in recent history, who has extremely strong ties to Stanford, was the elephant in the room. The seniors of last year were a mixture of excitement at the possibility of getting Clinton, but it was tapered with a sense that it was just out of reach.”
The movement has focused on the 2001 controversy in which Clinton was turned down to speak at his daughter Chelsea’s graduation in favor of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Some students behind the initiative felt that this “snub” could jeopardize Stanford’s chance of getting him in the future.
“I understand that hindsight is 20/20,” said senior Andrew Deeringer, a member of the Clinton Facebook group. “But it surely occurred to someone that they were turning down an American president, and not just some candidate. Since that time, Clinton has expressed firm refusal to go through that sort of fumbled process again.”
Amidst these efforts, however, some students are wary of the choice, arguing that Clinton’s presence might trigger unnecessary partisan conflict.
“I would love for former president Clinton to speak at my Commencement,” said senior Milton Solorzano. “But only on the condition that he avoid using the bully pulpit to promote Hillary or partisan politics. I don’t want a stump-speech from Bill. The ceremony is about you and me, not him and Hillary.”
Instead, Solorzano said he hoped Clinton would focus on some of his recent environmental work.
“His organization, riding the same ‘philanthropic wave’ seen with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Buffet grant, signals a new era of public giving — something not seen since Andrew Carnegie,” Solorzano said. “I would love to hear his philosophy on how we can contribute to this very positive movement.”
Although the process of choosing a Commencement speaker is usually kept secret from the student body, this year class presidents are working to poll popular opinion.
“We’ve had around 400 to 500 responses from seniors about Commencement this year,” said Senior Class President Faris Ali Mohiuddin. “From that we present a report to the Office of the President on the overall input from students. They then look through it and exhaust every available resource to get these individuals to campus.”
In addition to travel and lodging expenses, Stanford pays a small stipend that is usually given to the speakers charity of choice. While cost is sometimes an issue, Mohuiddin cited scheduling difficulties as the main deterrent for potential speakers.
“For the big East Coast schools, it’s often much easier for a speaker to just get in a car and drive down to the campus for a few hours,” Mohiuddin said. “But with Stanford it’s really a weekend commitment. In some cases, people who are invited will begrudgingly say no only because it’s not practical.”
And while students are excited by the prospect of Clinton speaking at Commencement, it remains for many just that — a prospect.
“I mean, it’s one thing to say we want to have Clinton, but it’s another thing to actively flier and send emails and hold discussions on the issue,” said senior Stephen Adams. “I’m not holding my breath on hearing William J. Clinton anytime soon.”