In recent years many univerisities including Harvard have broadcast the speeches of the main speakers, so we should be able to see her speech and acceptance of her honorary degree.
aillinne, you are wicked, I love your idea of sending her to Yale to cause a ruckus! (i’m an academic, and very anti-Yale…)
I can believe how lucky those graduates are! They don’t have to pay hundreds of dollars, or win a sweepstakes, or be a member of the press, or wait in line for hours to see her speak! haha
I wonder if she will do some other sort of event in the Boston area?
Wow, she’s quite a change from their usual guests. I’d have LOVED to see Kofi Annan speak. Ted Koppel spoke at mine… though, technically, I did graduate with Clint Eastwood!
@ budb
Thanks! ;)
I wonder about that honorary degree: is JKR going to receive LLD, D.A., Doctor of Letters or something else?
budb and ailline: I’m from Yale, and I agree with you both. Professor Pompous Twit (er, pardon me: Bloom) doesn’t speak for all of us. In fact, he’s an embarrassment to a lot of us.
I know she will give a wonderful speech full of warmth and humor. She deserves an Honorary Degree from Harvard. I feel that J.K.Rowlings has inspired people to pursue higher education, as well as focus hard on their early studies. She has also taught a generation to not just look for all the answers out of a book., or expect Professors to provide them with an education. That real education comes from a person’s determination, will, possibly knowing someone like Hermione to fill in the finer points, and pure resourcefulness.
I hope Leaky Lounge will get a transcript of the speech so we can read it.
Enjoy getting your Honorary Degree J.K.Rowlings!
I live 20 minutes from Cambridge!!
do you think I could somehow sneak in? I’m open to suggestions.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s great, now I only have to figure out how to get her to my my graduation…lol, way to go Jo and Harvard!!
If I lived near there I would go to the graduation store and buy a cap and gown and try to blend in. Just kidding, but I would probably choose the wrong color or something and stick out like a sore thumb. Ha ha. Seriously though, I hope someone records it so we can see.
Very impressive! We had Malcolm Forbes as our commencement speaker at Syracuse University. I can’t actually remember anything he spoke about though. But, he clearly wasn’t as important to me as Ms. Rowling.
Graduations are public ceremonies, typically. You don’t need an “invitation” to walk onto a campus either. Anybody can attend, just like you can walk onto Harvard any other day. Even if you weren’t allowed to, how could they question you? You’d say you’d know somebody who was graduating. If you’re around, I’d say go for it.
This is tremendously cool. My dad’s reunion was last year, just missed it by a year!!
I wonder if she will do anything else while she is in the states?
I suppose it is useless to hope that she would come to the University of Chicago in the next four years to speak.
Jay, always assumed that was the case, and that the few didn’t represent the entire intsitution…alas, i just hit the few more often! ;-)
ailline, its usually a DA but each place is different so that’s just a guess.
My best friend is graduating NEXT YEAR… dammit…. but this is so amazing!
ooo congrats Jo! (another inducement for my bro to apply to Harvard kekeke)