Asked last week on television whether he thought graduating collegians paid attention to a commencement address, William F. Buckley, a perennial favorite to speak at these rites, replied no. Rather he saw it as "a kind of a final obstacle to their emancipation." The sentiment was shared by New York Governor Mario Cuomo, surely one of the most popular graduation speakers (over 100 invitations), who told the class of '86 at the State University of New York at Albany, where one of his daughters was graduating, "Today's challenge is mostly to avoid embarrassing Madeline."
Elsewhere the mood of the special day...
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