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• 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
  • Maybe while sitting there you should think about that you're listening to one smart and successful individual. Dean of one of the top 5 law schools in the country, and he graduated magna cum laude, Harvard Law School at the same time completing a Phd from Fordham? I will be in attendance and look much more forward to his speech than when I sat through Bill Cosby and Gerald Levin. (NT) -- Dadas78, Fri April 22, 2005 23:31:35
  • I absolutely respect where you have came from as a Fordham student when the Sept. 11 attacks happenned, but my 3 years of enjoyment, as you so kindly put it, have been spent with students who have lost their mothers, their fathers, their brothers and sisters, so don't you dare question my statements regarding the imapact of those events. I have met a lot of smart and successful individuals, but a smart and successful individual is not necessarily a Fordham man. If you had been to Fr. McShane's speech tonight, you would realize that we are trying to distinguish Fordham as THE marquis (not marquee) Jesuit school in the country. In as far as that goal reaches, inviting a competing school's president over for a free degree disagrees with our hopeful achievements. (NT) -- Ram6it, Sat April 23, 2005 02:01:48
    • As far as the sacrifices of my class, which you so daringly challenge, WE were the ones to open our dormitory doors when strangers could not get to their homes during the terrorisst attacks, we were the ones who openned our doors during the blackout! We were the ones who donated more as a graduating class than our preceing classes, we were the ones who brought significant student involvement to basketball, we are the ones who are about to be the graduating class with this history and as such, I feel no remorse in criticizing this school for its choice in commencement speaker. (NT) -- Ram6it, Sat April 23, 2005 02:04:14
    • If this makes me less of a Fordham man in your eyes, because I only want the best for my school, than I wish to have no affiliation with a school striving for mediocrity and lack of notoriety.We were the ones who donated more as a graduating class than our preceing classes, we were the ones who brought significant student involvement to basketball, we are the ones who are about to be the graduating class with this history and as such, I feel no remorse in criticizing this school for its choice in commencement speaker. If this makes me less of a Fordham man in your eyes, because I only want the best for my school, than I wish to have no affiliation with a school striving for mediocrity and lack of notoriety. (NT) -- Ram6it, Sat April 23, 2005 02:07:48
      • Shhh.. Can you hear it? That’s the world's smallest violin playing for you. Please stop hyping yourself up into something special. We have all made alot of sacrifices. You shouldn’t be rewarded for what you have done because its part of being at Fordham. I would hope your class gift is more than the ones before it just due to the fact that Fordham’s classes are larger in size every year. No one on this board is going to shed a tear for you. Also if you weren’t so naive, you would understand it is common practice to have another school president be a speaker. Georgetown does it, BC does it, and yes NYU does it. Get over yourself and grow up. (NT) -- Dadas78, Sat April 23, 2005 11:53:28
      • Yawn........... -- Dadas78, Sat April 23, 2005 12:01:08
        • Please don't try to personally attack me. I have given you an opinoin and I have heard and respected yours. Oh, your girlfriend is in my class! We probably know eachother on a personal level. (NT) -- Ram6it, Sun April 24, 2005 01:12:59
          • Your lost. Not even close to a personal attack. Just trying to let you know there are those who have come before that have made sacrifices. Stop tooting your own horn. (NT) -- Dadas78, Mon April 25, 2005 08:55:39
    • Ram6it, Fr. McShane said he wants Fordham to regain its position as "the preeminent [not 'marquis'] Catholic university in North America." "Preeminence" means standing above all others, the best. A "marquis" is a mid-level nobleman, ranking below a duke and above an earl or count. A mid-level position is certainly not one to which Fr. McShane aspires (he wants Fordham to be the best), so your use of that word is clearly wrong. A "marquee," in common American usage, refers to a large signboard projecting out from a theater or other such venue which lists the name of a play/movie/event and of performers who are starring in it. I think "marquee value" is exactly what you and some of the other whiners want: a "star" or "celebrity" speaker of whom you can boast when you get into silly debates with students from other schools (so you can taunt them: "OUR speaker was more famous than your speaker!!! Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!"). Why don't you just grow up? (NT) -- Safire, Sat April 23, 2005 18:15:48
      • I apologize for the misuse of marquis/marquee and thank you for the gracious lesson. Would I like to have a famous keynote speaker? Absolutely, but as I have also stated, let Fr. O'Hare come back and give an address. My problem is acknowledging an academic from NYU, our competition. I have looked into John Sexton and he is indeed a very successful and noteworthy speaker, but the timing of this announcement with our well published plans for growth and achievement is seen by myself as a missed opportunity. I don't wish to get into debates over who's keynote speaker is more famous, but I do want to know who our other options were, I want to know why the students were not allowed to consider our choices. Does this sound unreasonable? (NT) -- Ram6it, Sat April 23, 2005 18:28:23
        • Ram6it, yours is not the only graduating class that has lived through troubled times, like those following 9/11. When I graduated, many of my contemporaries--including some friends and classmates--had already died in Vietnam. And we didn't expect some sort of of special treatment as a result. Also I think it's silly to assume that inviting a speaker associated with a particular university means that we're "bowing" to that institution as superior to ours. In honoring John Sexton, we're recognizing a Fordham graduate who has excelled in multiple fields. Maybe the University could have scheduled a speaker with more "name value"--and maybe there should have been an opportunity for the seniors to discuss possible speakers with the administration--but it's too late to change that now. Give John Sexton a chance. As I posted above, he is a dynamic man and I presume he'll turn out to be a great graduation speaker. (NT) -- Ram'69, Sun April 24, 2005 01:17:17

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• 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

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• 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