Back in the fall of 1965, I had John Sexton for a freshman theology course at Fordham College (he was a graduate student in theology back then). John was a pretty dynamic guy (if a bit weird, in some respects). While he may not have "marquee value," he probably will be a pretty good speaker. -- Fordham Rams Basketball Message Board

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Date Posted: Fri April 22, 2005 18:12:45
Author: Ram'69
Subject: Back in the fall of 1965, I had John Sexton for a freshman theology course at Fordham College (he was a graduate student in theology back then). John was a pretty dynamic guy (if a bit weird, in some respects). While he may not have "marquee value," he probably will be a pretty good speaker.
In reply to: FC 's message, "John Sexton, Pres of NYU, to deliver keynote address at FU commencement, May 21st. BA, MA, PhD Fordham, JD Harvard" on Fri April 22, 2005 15:02:38

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As a present Fordham Senior, it is important for me to comment on this selection. As a college student in New York, I view NYU as our competition in terms of prestige and enrollment. I would prefer we not have a competing school's president as our keynote speaker. To me, it feels like we are bowing to NYU as a superior school. Our class has given at 36% with $3,000 dollars more than last years class. Our class is the class that while making an adjustment to living at college was subject to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center. It would have been a lot nicer if Fordham realized the generosity, sacrifice and historical importance of this class by rewarding them with someone of more notoriety as a keynote speaker. We have this gentleman from NYU and I am beside myself with disappointment. (NT) -- Ram6it, Fri April 22, 2005 22:43:49

Get a life! This guy is more of a Fordham person at heart than you are. Your logic and use of topics is completely flawed.. NYU is his job, Fordham is where he went to school for three of his degrees. Also, what does your class gift or Sept. 11th have to do with the University picking your speaker? I hope you mature quickly. Your class didn't sacrifice any more than other classes before you have. Is your class historic due to Sept 11th? Since I graduated in 2002, is my class any less significant because we were seniors when that happened? Your logic sucks! My heart hurts that you had to enjoy three more years of Fordham, while I had to walk past the ground zero area on my way to work. Suck up the 40 minutes of speech, try and take something from it and enjoy graduation. (NT) -- Dadas78, Fri April 22, 2005 23:22:21

As a fellow senior I must agree. I feel like having a speaker from a competing school and a school so close to ours is not a good decision. I admit that I don't know much about him, but I can tell you that after three straight years of EXCELLENT speakers a lot of people are not happy. Hopefully it works out for the best. (NT) -- Sasquatch, Sat April 23, 2005 00:14:02

If you can, review the 1996 commencement. That year the university failed to even obtain a speaker for the ceremony. The senior class staged a large and vocal protest based on the failure of the administration, particularly the university secretary, whose main job is to obtain the speaker. Since then, fordham has made sure to obtain engaging speakers for commencement. I believe that John Sexton will be a fine speaker, but if you have an issue then make them known. (NT) -- toby, Sat April 23, 2005 09:57:58

There are 2 issues here. One is being upset at the selection of a rival, albeit an FU grad 'rival', to speak at commencement. I think this is worthy of debate (as you see playing out a bit on here). The 2nd issue is the way Ram6it has tried to articulate why this latest class is the greatest ... and somehow that rationale has included using the tragic events of 9/11 to argue for a better speaker (what? if 9/11 hadn't happened you'd be getting the person you deserved?). It's a very disappointing argument overall. If you want to make the case for someone else to speak, stick the substance and leave out extraneous things such as this from your argument. We all want to be proud of each group that moves on to join the rest of us as alumns of a great University; not feel annoyed at someone who is trying to use a very odd rationale for making it sound as though this is the most historic class to have ever graced our halls. (NT) -- PA Ram, Mon April 25, 2005 08:56:04