Just ‘Another Academic’: Seniors Greet Commencement Speaker Pick with Lukewarm Reactions

After Harvard announced that Stanford University biology professor Abraham Verghese would be the 2025 Commencement speaker on Thursday, seniors lauded his professional accomplishments but largely said they were hoping for a more high-profile selection.

Sydney E. Farnham ’25 said she and her friends for years had eagerly anticipated the Commencement speaker selection for their graduation — “like, ‘Oh that’s pretty cool. I wonder who ours is gonna be.’”

But on Thursday, she “was a little disappointed,” she said.

“Not that he’s disappointing in any way,” Farnham added. “He’s a very impressive individual. I think I was just expecting someone with a little bit more name recognition.”

Though Emily C. Schanzer ’25 said she had previously read one of Verghese’s novels and found him to be a “really good author,” she was hoping for “somebody that’s known a little bit more” to deliver the address.

“He has an interesting perspective as a doctor and an author, but I don’t know if that makes him a great choice for a Commencement speaker,” Schanzer said.

In response to a request for comment, University spokesperson Jason A. Newton directed The Crimson to a statement in Thursday’s Harvard Gazette announcement of Verghese as this year’s Commencement speaker.

“Throughout his remarkable career, Dr. Abraham Verghese has followed his wide-ranging interests to carve a unique path distinguished by breathtaking creativity, outstanding achievement, and exemplary service and leadership,” President Alan M. Garber ’76 said in a statement to the Harvard Gazette.

“I cannot imagine a better individual to inspire the members of our Class of 2025 as they contemplate their futures,” Garber added.

While teaching at Stanford School of Medicine for more than two decades, Garber worked alongside Verghese for four years.

“Alan Garber is an internist and was my colleague at Stanford before being appointed Provost and then President of Harvard University. I’m deeply honored that he asked me to be Harvard’s commencement speaker this year,” Verghese wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

A Thursday Sidechat post that gained more than 450 upvotes criticized the selection of Verghese, calling him “Alan Garbers old buddy from Stanford.”

The University declined to comment on Verghese’s relationship to Garber.

Some students, like David Li ’25, said they hadn’t heard of Verghese before the announcement.

“I didn’t know who he was, but then I did some background research,” Li said. “He seems like a cool person.”

Zazie Huml ’25 said she learned of Verghese through her Social Studies thesis advisor and was “excited” when she heard that he would be the commencement speaker.

Sayalee N. Patankar ’25 said that as she hopes to enter the healthcare field after graduation, Verghese’s work is “of interest to her,” adding that she expects the Class Day speaker to be someone “cooler and more mainstream in social media.”

“I think there’s space to get that Tom Hanks speech that we all want in another speech,” she added, referring to Harvard’s 2023 Commencement speech delivered by Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks.

Class Day is a lighthearted day of graduation festivities prior to Commencement, featuring another speaker invited by the class and two speeches from graduating seniors. Last year, after struggling to find a speaker, the senior class committee and Harvard Alumni Association invited the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 and Securitas employee Bill Oliverio to speak at Class Day.

Other students said they had different expectations for a commencement speaker, though they recognized Verghese’s academic accomplishments.

Sahil Kuchlous ’25 said that he and his roommates had wanted a Commencement speaker from a non-academic field to provide a “different perspective” than the professors they regularly interact with. He said a pop culture figure “would be great, but I think there’s a lot to learn even if someone isn’t famous.”

Kulchous pointed to Noble-laureate Maria Ressa, who delivered the address last year, as someone with a valuable perspective that was unique from his professors’. But after Ressa was announced as commencement speaker, seniors expressed similar disappointment.

“It seems a little disappointing having it just be another academic,” he said.

—Staff writer Hiral M. Chavre can be reached at hiral.chavre@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @h_chavre.

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.