University of Virginia Library

The Politics Of Rhetoric

We are bound, first of all, to commend the
selection of Senator Vance Hartke (D-Ind.) as
guest speaker at graduation exercises June 6.
As was clear to anyone who attended the
April 24 demonstrations in Washington, the
senator is a powerful proponent for the liberal
view in that amalgam of opinions and
strategies from YAF to Weatherman
which is the anti-war movement. His remarks
next month, then, may be expected to
concern Indochina. With his name frequently
found among those of other Democratic
presidential thoroughbreds, Mr. Hartke
promises to enlighten his audience as an
insider as well as an able critic.

*****

As June approaches so, too, do senior class
elections. This perennial finale in
electioneering on the Grounds has seldom
risen, in most minds, above the status of a
cliquish personality contest among the
coming year's Lawn residents. Last spring the
election of fourth-year officers was upstaged
by the strike. So total was May's daze that
balloting was suspended until fall. While the
outcome probably went unaltered because of
the delay, it seems useful at this point to
explore the nature of the jobs at stake —
particularly that of senior class president.

In large part the office is honorary. The
president must administer, of course, the
selection and funding of a traditional senior
class gift to the University. More important is
his role in assuring that class opinion underlies
the choice of a graduation speaker. In the past
such figures have been drawn — without
consulting students — from the ranks of
faculty and administration at the University.

President Shannon's address last year
proved a departure from this tradition only
because events demanded a report whose
scope and substance could deal realistically
with the state of an institution under siege. It
will be recalled as a high point in what
memory's scrapbook can tell us of
commencements past.

Senator Hartke's speech should further
such a trend away from parochialism,
answering instead the needs of the day as they
bear on society at large. No hearing of his
words June 6, however, would be complete
without first descrying the process by which
he was chosen to speak.

Working in connection with the
University's Public Occasions Committee,
senior class representatives led by Robert
Nigro last winter opened what clearly evolved
into a long series of negotiations on the
matter of securing an "acceptable" orator.
Such a person should, according to the
committee's stated criteria, "command the
attention of a large and diverse audience."
Further, "the speaker should not be someone
who by his previously expressed views is
likely to alienate a significant segment of the
audience even before he rises to speak." How
to interpret that?

An initial list of potential speakers yielded
nothing in the way of results. All had to
decline. A second pool was proposed by Mr.
Nigro's group. Some of the public figures
numbered among the second group, it now
appears, may have seemed red flags before the
bull. No Marxists, mind you, but several of
the names are doubtless related in the
national mind to affairs politic. In any case,
Mr. Nigro was not long in discerning a
pronounced hesitation — even calculated
delay — on the part of the committee. April
arrived, and still no speaker in sight. It was at
this time that he decided to act on his own.

In dispatching the class's invitation to
former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Mr.
Nigro attempted to sidestep the sort of
roadblock which student bargainers have long
been forced to face. A swift veto of this
initiative from the shadow zone of
administrative power was forthcoming. Mr.
Clark was summarily notified, in effect, that
he need not plan to be in Charlottesville for
graduation. Those who wonder why will do
well to look beyond the wording of the
committee's proviso on guest speakers. Look
instead to its final interpreter. Ask President
Shannon.

None of this is important in the sense that
a good speaker was lost; in Sen. Hartke, we
have a fine one. However, as they elect this
week next year's officers, members of the
class of 1972 might consider the part they
intend to play in choosing a guest speaker. It
is obvious that a strong and willing class
president will enhance the probability of
securing early an orator for June, 1972. In
this way such a person will not fail his
listeners — "even before he (or she) rises to
speak."