University Librarian Karin Wittenborg will serve as the keynote speaker for this year’s Fall Convocation Oct. 24.
University President John T. Casteen, III’s decision to select Wittenborg from a short list of candidates provided by a student-faculty advising committee continued the general trend of choosing University community members — especially faculty or administrators — as the keynote speakers for Fall Convocation, said Alexander Gilliam, special assistant to the president and secretary to the Board of Visitors.
The idea is that Fall Convocation is a “University community occasion, and it should be kept in the family,” Gilliam said.
Coinciding with Family Weekend, Fall Convocation is a longer-standing University tradition whose present purpose revolves around the keynote address and the awarding of intermediate honors, as well as the University’s prestigious Thomas Jefferson Award, Gilliam said.
Ultimately, the choice of the keynote speaker tends to be based on certain personal attributes, Gilliam said. For example, he noted that there is generally a desire for a competent public speaker, with an interesting presentation, whom the University community holds in high regard.
As with keynote speakers in past years, Gilliam noted, Wittenborg will be allowed to speak on topics of her choosing.
“She could talk about anything she wanted,” Gilliam said. “Speakers in the past have talked about anything that is on their mind.”
— compiled by Prateek Vasireddy
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