Faculty to Open Competitions for Graduation Talks

Expecting a flood of applicants for the honor of speaking at June Commencement, the Committee on Commencement Parts, headed by Mason Hammond '25, professor of Greek and Latin, yesterday announced that trials will be held next month to determine the one of two fortunate "cum laudes" who will address their classmates in June.

Frederick C. Packard, Jr '20, associate professor of Public Speaking and member of professor Hammond's committee, believes that speaking at the exercise "is one of the most enviable honors a student may attain. Nearly all of Harvard's famous sons," he added, were Commencement speakers."

Famous Commencement Speakers

Cotton Mather, Josiah Quincy, Harrison Gray Otis and Abbot Lawrence Lowell are only a few of the more prominent veterans of the Commencement platform, according to Packard.

The committee is requesting department heads to submit the names of outstanding honors candidates who "have something to say, and may not know how to say it," Packard stated, but added that the trials are not limited to those recommended. Any honors candidate may register with the committee in March and participate in the competition.

Everyone Had a Chance

In the early years of the College all men receiving degrees had their say at commencement, but with the number of graduates increasing and higher degrees than the A.B. also conferred, only outstanding students, and later honors men, were eligible to speak.

This year's commencement audience will hear the traditional Latin salutation, and one of two English orators chosen by the Committee. The June 5 exercises will "equal in pageantry and impressiveness any in the history of the University," Packard predicted.