Stephen Colbert, the fake pundit and political satirist, gave the University real news Sunday, when it was announced that he would be the University’s 2013 valediction speaker. Colbert will speak Saturday, May 18 at 11 a.m. as part of Finals weekend. The graduating class should be ecstatic that its trustees were able to compel such a comedic and important presence to speak at our University.
The anchor of the week-nightly phenomenon, “The Colbert Report,” it is typically Colbert who does introductions. He will now serve as the University’s guest, and certainly many students have already made his acquaintance — either through said broadcast hit, his numerous books, rallies, or by encountering one of the coinages that Colbert has added to the generational lexicon. On a day-to-day basis, Colbert has revealed the hypocrisy of media and the farce of politics on “The Colbert Report” since the show’s inception in 2005.
Playing an exaggerated conservative pundit on television, Colbert seldom leaves character — and it will be interesting to examine what persona students witness come valediction day. If his previous speeches are any indication — most notably, his 2006 keynote at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where Colbert roasted then-President George W. Bush from a matter of feet away — Colbert rarely takes off the costume or puts away the ironic quotes. Thus it will be a relief for students to experience a speech of a lighter variety than the typical earnestness of a graduation speech, without sacrificing any of the insight.
The most surprising element about this development is that Colbert will be speaking at valediction and not commencement. Commencement, a graduation standard, is the actual event where the class of 2013 will gather in cap-and-gown in procession. Valediction, meanwhile, is a subsidiary, unticketed event where University awards are presented. That the Fourth-Year Trustees were able to bag Colbert as a valediction speaker is thus a more incredible feat given that it won’t be commencement. Although the University’s Commencement and Convocations Committee and President Sullivan will still need to select a commencement speaker, they could be already overshadowed by the Trustees’ startling news of Colbert.
If Colbert does remain the headline speaker that weekend, he will join the tradition of illustrious political figures who have spoken at graduation. As speakers are typically governors, senators or university presidents, the University has made it something of a habit to send off its students with a note of civic engagement — in a manner that would be approved by Jefferson, who saw his students as future political leaders. Colbert continues in this tradition; and, though not an alumnus himself, he is married to an alumna.
So caps off to the Trustees. This body of students has managed to generate excitement among the graduating class about an event on a Saturday that doesn’t involve football or drinking. The often overlooked and uncrowded valediction ceremony just got the Colbert bump.
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