Commencement Speaker 2001



Thank you to all of you who have submitted suggestions for our commencement speaker. We've received many great suggestions. While almost all of the people submitted would make excellent speakers, we have narrowed down the list for the purpose of this ballot in order to ensure appreciable margins of votes between the candidates. The candidates included on this ballot have been chosen on the basis of the feasibility of getting them to speak here, their previous experience as public speakers, and their appeal to a broad audience.

From February 28th to March 3rd, the Class of 2001 will vote for the people on this list who they would like to see at their commencement. The commencement committee will then submit the results of this vote to President Gillis. Please review the candidate bios and vote for your top three suggestions. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail gradspkr@rice.edu. Thank you.


List of Candidates
Scott Adams
Madeleine Albright
Isabel Allende
Maya Angelou
Oscar Arias Sanchez
Noam Chomsky
Bill Cosby
Katie Couric
Michael Crichton
Michael Dell
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
John Glenn
Alan Greenspan
Jesse Jackson
Michael Jordan
Herb Kelleher
Ken Kesey
Spike Lee
Maya Lin
Wynton Marsalis
Toni Morrison
C.J. Peters
Colin Powell
Norman Schwartzkopf
George Soros
Steven Spielberg
Tom Stoppard
Margaret Thatcher
Gary Trudeau
Barbara Walters
Elie Wiesel
Robin Williams
Oprah Winfrey
 The Ballot . . .




Commencement Speaker Committee 2001
Undergraduate Representatives
Marisa Bono
Craig Harrison
Mohit Mehta
Graduate Representatives
Kristin Peterson
P. David Tung
Faculty Representative
Dr. John Bennett
Site design by Craig Harrison Last updated: 02/24/00