University of Virginia Library

Board Meets To Select
Commencement Speaker

By SCOTT TOLLEFSEN

The Graduating Class
Executive Board met last night
to recommend a June
commencement speaker to
replace the late President
Lyndon Johnson.

Yesterday afternoon, class
president Pat Patrick said that
the Board "has to act this week
to suggest possible speakers"
because final exercises are
imminent.

"Members of the Board
have been searching
independently around the
University community in an
attempt to find a speaker," Mr.
Patrick noted.

"We still have the rest of the
undisclosed results from last
spring's speaker preference
poll," he continued. "This will
probably be our sole official
guide to the wishes of
fourth-year students, because
we don't have enough time to
organize a new referendum."

The Board will list three or
four recommended speakers in
order of preference, and will
then send the list to the Public
Occasions Committee for
approval.

President Edgar F. Shannon
Jr. must give final approval to
the graduating class' selection.
Mr. Shannon will then invite
the speaker on behalf of the
entire University.

After Mr. Johnson's death
Jan. 22, Mr. Patrick said the
University "will have a very
difficult time finding another
person of Mr. Johnson's caliber
with so little time" before
graduation.

The former president had
been a nearly unanimous
choice of the Executive Board
last October. The board's
recommendation was
immediately approved by the
Public Occasions Committee
and the President at that time.

Mr. Johnson's acceptance of
the invitation last October had
been tentative, depending on
the condition of his health
following his heart attack.

Francis L. Berkeley,
Executive Assistant to Mr.
Shannon, commented that
governors of Virginia
"traditionally" speak to the
University community at some
point during their terms. Gov.
Linwood Holton, in his last
year in office, has not yet
addressed the University's
student body. Mr. Berkeley
said that the Board may
therefore "turn to Gov. Holton
for its speaker."

In previous years, Mr.
Berkeley noted, University
scholars and professors were
traditionally asked to deliver
the commencement address.

This practice has been
dropped in recent years in
favor of inviting nationally
known figures in politics and
literature.