Reminder: Class Day Speaker Announced Today
Don’t forget that this year’s class day speaker will be announced today at 12:30 on Low Plaza. That’s in one hour, folks. Place your final bets and cross your fingers.
UPDATE (12:38 PM): As rumored yesterday, the CC Class Day speaker will be Attorney General Eric Holder, CC ’73, Law ’76.
UPDATE (1:35 PM): We’ve got pictures of the momentous announcement and Columbia’s press release.
CC ’09 Student Council engages in a group huddle to prepare themselves for delivering the news. Lunch-eating passersby don’t know what’s about to hit them.
The Announcement is made. Holder’s achievement of becoming the first African-American attorney general receives praise.
And then, with a brief “Thanks to all our adoring masses,” it was over. But to be fair, Student Council has midterms, too.
Columbia’s press release:
Attorney General Eric Holder Will Be
Columbia College Class Day Speaker
NEW YORK, March 10, 2009 – Columbia College has announced that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, an alumnus of both Columbia College and Law School, will serve as its speaker for Class Day, the annual ceremony honoring graduating seniors. This year’s ceremony takes place on Tuesday, May 19, on the South Lawn of Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus.
“Columbians are rightly proud to count both the President of the United States and his Attorney General among our graduates,” said Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger. “Eric Holder has been a loyal and active alumnus of both our College and Law School whose impressive career exemplifies the civic values and commitment to public service that we hope to nurture in our students across all professional fields and academic disciplines. We look forward to welcoming him back.”
After being sworn in as attorney general last month, Holder (CC’73, Law’76) became the second consecutive Columbia graduate to serve in that cabinet post, succeeding Michael Mukasey (CC’63). He served as a Columbia University trustee from March 2007 until his confirmation.
“Eric Holder has stayed closely connected to the College and to his classmates while building an outstanding career serving the public good,” said Dean Austin Quigley, dean of Columbia College. “He is a fine example to all of our students and his remarks at the 2009 Class Day will make the occasion especially memorable for our graduating seniors and their families.”
After his graduation from Columbia College and Law School, Holder joined the Department of Justice’s newly-formed Public Integrity Section, where he investigated and prosecuted corruption involving officials in local, state and federal government. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed Holder to serve as an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where he presided over hundreds of criminal and civil trials during his five years on the bench.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Holder to serve as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. In 1997, Clinton appointed Holder to serve as deputy attorney general of the United States, a position that he held until the end of the Clinton administration. Over the course of his career, Holder has earned a reputation as a staunch champion of civil rights.
Tags: class day
10 March 2009 @ 10:39 AM · 41 comments
on 
To clarify, That would be the Columbia College Class Day Speaker
Felipe Tarud
felipe
well?
…..c’mon!
word.
columbia pwnz all ivy speakerz
couldn’t've been better unless we had the president himself :)
Just makes me feel worse for ’08.
*laugh* pictures? Don’t lie, Bwog, you totally got the council to pose again when you showed up late.
I had my fingers crossed for Maggie Gyllenhaal!
The only thing that could possibly ruin class day is if Holder inexplicably decides to remove the glory that is his moustache. That thing will inspire thousands of Columbians to greatness.
Issues of hair on the face, we’ve been a nation of cowards
class of cowards?
That’s amazing! I’m so jealous. I hope ours is equally awesome.
this is awesome. I mean, Obama would’ve been better, obviously. But no complaints here.
no complaints at all. it was pretty obvious that it was going to be Holder since he was a trustee and arguably pretty easy to get – but yeah, the only better option would have been Obama. But since the President doesn’t even list himself as a CC grad in his bio on whitehouse.gov I wouldn’t have expected him to accept an invitation.
So, uh, when so we find out about the SEAS speaker?
open to everyone like Barnard’s?
even seniors have a limited quota of guests we can bring
No, you’re thinking of Commencement. Anyone who would like can come to Class Day.
actually Class Day IS open to all. It’s Commencement that there are limited tickets to.
It always has been in the past, yes.
for cc at least
class day allows students pretty much unlimited capacity.
commencement allows only 4 seats for guests per student
and no one cares about seas anyway
I will eat your babies, bitch!
..that’s why I love SEAS.
Barnard’s speaker is better
…eric holder actually went to CC. h-bomb did not.
corrected
and seas’s speaker will suck – so we’re even.
Anyone can go to class day because there’s lots of space.
University Commencement, on the other hand, is limited because they’re trying to fit over 10,000 graduates and their guests onto campus.
http://www.wikicu.com/Commencement
uh why is barnard’s speaker better
I wouldn’t say Barnard’s is better. They are really about equal, although I think Hillary has a lot more recognition. All in all, thank you for finally getting it together on class day speaker, although I’m two years too late for that.
i voted for marcellus wiley
if we couldn’t get Obama, we could at least get him to sit down for a few minutes and record or video or something they could screen at Commencement.
But that was looked into… instead expect Holder to arrive with a message from the president.
I love Hilldog as much as the next person, but she isn’t the most pleasant-sounding, funny or interesting speaker, although I’m sure she has valuable insight to provide. Holder ftw! I’m just glad we did better than lol-Kleine.
felsman’s doing I suspect. Way to go!
Obama didn’t like Columbia. Get over it.
because he is AG, or because of name recognition? Because Michael Mukasey came and spoke last semester, and barely anyone showed up…
Nobody showed up to Mukasey because he was Bush’s AG. Holder is legitimately awesome in his own right — not a desperate replacement for Alberto Gonzales.
agree 100%!