Yale 2009

I am back from attending the Yale 2009 commencement. This involved four separate events spread over two days.

Christopher Buckley gave the class day address on Sunday. He had some good lines such as pointing out that while the first black President, Obama, is a Harvard man his election probably would not have been possible without the efforts of George W. Bush, a Yalie. The rest of the class day exercises were less interesting, particularly the awards to Yale professors which seemed a bit too self promotional.

The picture shows Hilary Clinton receiving a honorary degree on Monday morning as part of the Commencement ceremony. Although the picture is of a TV screen set up for those of us in the back I did in fact see her albeit at a distance (she was actually off the picture to the right). She is perhaps the most famous person I have ever seen in person. The rest of the morning event was less noteworthy and the actual diplomas were not handed out until later in separate ceremonies for the individual colleges like Calhoun.

While I am glad I attended, other colleges manage things in a more expeditious way which is easier on the friends and family. And Yale came across as rather smug, I heard a few too many references to the great value of a Yale education.

Things could have been worse. When parking my car on Monday morning I was not warned that the parking garage would close at 9 pm. I had dinner and didn't make it back to the car until about 9:20 and just barely averted finding it locked in.