The Commencement Committee invites suggestions from all members of the community for the guest speaker at MIT's 2001 Commencement Exercises to be held on Friday, June 8. The commencement speaker should be able to address topics of relevance to MIT.
Written suggestions may be dropped off at the Undergraduate Association Office, Rm W20-401; the Graduate Student Council Office, Rm 50-222; or at the Information Center, Rm 7-121.
In addition, suggestions may be filed with Erick Tseng, president of the Class of 2001 erick@mit.edu; Soulaymane Kachani, president of the Graduate Student Council kachani@mit.edu; Gayle Gallagher, executive officer for Commencement gayle@mit.edu; and Eric Grimson, chair of the Commencement Committee welg@ai.mit.edu.
Suggestions must be received by Friday, Oct. 6.
Following a review, the committee will submit a list to President Charles Vest for consideration. The list will not be made public. President Vest has the responsibility and authority for selecting and inviting a guest speaker for the Commencement Exercises.
Commencement speakers for the past 10 years were Carleton Fiorina (SM 1989), president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co. (2000); Tom and Ray Magliozzi, MIT alumni better known as Click and Clack of Car Talk on National Public Radio (1999); President Bill Clinton and AIDS researcher Dr. David Ho (MD 1978) (1998); Kofi Annan (SM 1972), secretary general of the United Nations (1997); Vice President Al Gore (1996); Hanna Gray, president emeritus of the University of Chicago (1995); Karim Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims (1994); Carlos Salinas de Gortari, president of the United Mexican States (1993); Leslie Aspin, former Congressman from Wisconsin (1992) and Walter E. Massey, former director of the National Science Foundation (1991).
A list of speakers before 1991 is on the MIT News Office web site.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 4, 2000.
