Abigail Wexner to deliver OSU commencement address and LITERALLY no one asked for this
Who even is she?
On May 7th, an estimated crowd of 11,500 graduates will gather in Ohio Stadium for the 415th commencement ceremony.
On Wednesday morning, the University announced that Ohio State Board of Trustees member and Columbus philanthropist, Abigail Wexner, will deliver the spring commencement address.
Who even is she?
Abigial Wexner is the wife of Les Wexner, after whom the Wexner Center for the Arts and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center are named. She is a lawyer and volunteer who is particularly interested in issues affecting children. Wexner also has a notably long history of involvement in education.
In 2002, Wexner founded KidsOhio.org, a nonpartisan think tank focused on using data to improve public schools. In addition, she is a founding board member for the nonprofit charter school KIPP Columbus, part of a chain recognized nationally for success in improving academic performance among disadvantaged children.
In 2014, Wexner was appointed to a nine-year term on Ohio State’s Board of Trustees.
At the ceremony, Wexner will receive an honorary Doctor of Public Service award.
Distinguished as she may be in her own regard, Ohio State students are skeptical and less than enthusiastic about the University’s choice in featured speakers. “We couldn’t even get Les Wexner?” they wonder.
The Wexner family is one of the largest donors to the University, leaving students to wonder what exactly goes into how the speaker is decided. For 2013 spring commencement, President Obama was the speaker, and now we have a huge donor to the University.
Not to mention, aside from her being Les Wexner’s wife, most of the student body has no idea who Abigail is. The University could have pulled a stranger off of the street and we wouldn’t even know the difference.
We pay thousands of dollars for a degree and we cannot even get a remotely interesting speaker for graduation? How sad. We deserve so much more than one of the largest donors to address us at graduation. It’s bad enough we have to sit through a four hour long ceremony as it is.
OSU, you have yet again disappointed your students with who you have selected as the commencement speaker. Maybe next year you can do better.