UW commencement speech creates controversy

Kristin Czubkowski  —  12/24/2008 2:53 pm

UW-Madison's winter commencement ceremonies have passed, but one student's speech has generated continuing controversy for giving parents and families a little too much detail about what their graduates may have been doing over the past four or more years.

UW-Madison graduate Savannah Ziegelbauer spoke on behalf of graduates at the 10 a.m. ceremony Sunday. While her speech's focus was on three campus landmarks that symbolized the growth and achievements of graduates, it also made eight references to drinking or partying -- including four in the first 30 seconds -- which caused offense for some faculty and audience members.

Julie Mitchell, a professor of biochemistry and mathematics at UW, said the number of references were not as troubling as the visceral image that Ziegelbauer, a journalism and political science major who graduated with honors, was able to portray.

"I've seen other commencement addresses and all of them say something about 'And oh, we'll miss the partying,' but the thing is, if a student makes some random reference to partying, your dad, some three-second snippet of 'Animal House' flashes in his mind and he pictures people running around in togas and that's it," she said. "She's a writer, so she naturally paints a very detailed picture of things, and that was part of the problem, that she painted a very detailed picture of the bar special lists and the fake IDs.  I found that a little unsettling.

"This is her first big lesson as a writer, what happens when you say something and everyone focuses on the wrong part of it."

Bob Kleppa, a Madison resident who attended Sunday morning's commencement speech to watch four friends and relatives receive graduate degrees, said he found Ziegelbauer's speech to be "wholly inappropriate" and that it took away from the achievements of the graduates, particularly those who come from outside the country because of UW-Madison's prestige.

Kleppa, who was born out of state but attended UW-Madison for graduate school, added that it also served to highlight the state's problem drinking and "contradicts" efforts from the county and the university itself to combat those issues.

"I'm certainly not a prude about drinking, but in Wisconsin, we have a really serious problem with overindulgence of alcohol, and she just kind of lanced that boil. It really got ugly, I thought."

Dean of Students Lori Berquam said the university is still working to curb problem drinking on campus, but that the drinking references in Ziegelbauer's speech were easy to take out of the context of an average student's campus life because studying is a less "glamorous" speech topic.

"It's a continual journey not just for our campus, but for every campus, continuing to address these issues from a bigger point of view," she said.

Berquam added that it is common for there to be complaints and compliments about every speech -- from students or professionals -- but what's more important is that the students are allowed to choose their own speakers without censorship.

"We don't want to get into the business of censoring speeches either because that seems very manipulative. Whether or not we agree with everything the speakers say, we have to be careful," she said.

Senior class officers have the option of making the graduation speeches themselves or choosing a student representative to make a speech. At the smaller winter commencement, senior class vice president Ed Dunbar said the officers decided to pick student representatives, sending out a mass e-mail to all students registered to graduate in December.

After receiving about eight applicants, Dunbar said five finalists were selected to make their speeches in front of the officers, and Ziegelbauer and UW-Madison business graduate Tyler Falish were selected.

Dunbar said he noticed the references to drinking and partying in Ziegelbauer's speech, but thought that the overall theme of highlighting important places for students on campus was more prominent and unique.

He added that during his election last spring, many of the students he spoke to mentioned the importance of making the graduation speeches enjoyable for students.

"When I talk to students a lot, [they say] graduation is a very important, but graduation can drag on, so we wanted something that would be lighthearted," he said. "We really wanted a balance -- a student speaker who had a good message but also kept things light-hearted."

Kristin Czubkowski  —  12/24/2008 2:53 pm