Christiane Amanpour Chosen as Class Day Speaker

Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent, will address graduates of the College on Senior Class Day, the Senior Class Committee announced yesterday.

An internationally acclaimed journalist with nine Emmys, an Edward R. Murrow award, and six honorary degrees under her belt, Amanpour will speak to the Class of 2010 at Tercentenary Theatre on May 26—the afternoon before the students receive their diplomas at Commencement.

The host of her own CNN program, Amanpour has gained recognition for her hard-hitting coverage on domestic crises like Hurricane Katrina. The fluent speaker of English, Persian, and French has also reported in international war zones such as Afghanistan and the Balkans.

Amanpour is the first female Class Day speaker since Lani C. Guinier ’71, a Clinton nominee for assistant attorney general who delivered the Class Day speech in 1994 and is now a professor at Harvard Law School.

Amanpour joins the ranks of previous Class Day speakers who came from various walks of life. Many past speakers—such as Sacha Baron Cohen, Will Ferrell, and Conan O’Brien ’85—were comedians, while others, like Tim Russert and former President Bill Clinton, came from careers in media or public service.

Nworah B. Ayogu ’10, the first class marshal, said that Amanpour’s reporting on events that have taken place during the lives of the graduating class—such as the Persian Gulf War and the Rwandan genocide—reverberate especially deeply with the Class of 2010.

“All of these major historical events have defined this generation,” Ayogu said. “I can’t think of a more inspiring collection of viewpoints to bring together in one individual.”

Ayogu said that since yesterday morning’s announcement of Amanpour’s imminent arrival on campus, many students have expressed their approval of the choice.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people who have been really enthused, people who are familiar with major current events,” Ayogu said. “People who are well versed in media are very excited. Other people have been less enthused.”

Detractors, he said, have voiced their preference for President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and Oprah Winfrey as the Class Day speaker.

Several seniors expressed ambivalence about the choice—a sentiment that may stem from a lack of recognition of Amanpour’s name among some individuals.

“I’m not disappointed, but I’m not ecstatic either,” said Rosemary H. Han ’10, who said that she would prefer someone more in the vein of political satirist Stephen Colbert.

“I thought they would have a different mix of people this year,” said Wenna Jia ’10, an inactive Crimson business editor, in reference to Matt Lauer, another television anchor who delivered last year’s Class Day speech.

The announcement of Amanpour’s selection comes after a lengthy process that began in October, when the Class Committee polled seniors to determine which speakers would be feasible to invite to Cambridge.

Ayogu cautioned against judging the quality of a speech by the recognizability of the speaker’s name, recalling the 2008 Class Day speech of Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Ben S. Bernanke ’75, who focused on energy and labor productivity in a speech accompanied by 12 footnotes and 12 references.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.