President Obama will give the commencement address for the U-M Class of 2010 on May 1.
It was a pretty big deal when the University of Michigan announced President Barack Obama would deliver the keynote address at spring commencement on May 1. President Mary Sue Coleman said landing Obama had become an "obsession."
"Ever since he was elected and I saw the outpouring of enthusiasm from our students, I thought this would be terrific," Coleman told the Detroit Free Press.
Obama is far from the first U.S. president to come to campus. But his presence will end an almost two-decade drought of presidential keynotes at spring commencement. Prior to Obama, the last sitting president to deliver commencement at Michigan was George H.W. Bush in 1991.
Bush used his speech to challenge the culture of political correctness in America. This would have ruffled feathers on campus - U-M implemented a speech code in the name of said political correctness in 1988; it was later shot down in court in 1989 - if Bush hadn't been hospitalized shortly after leaving Ann Arbor. Turns out Bush suffered from a thyroid disorder.
President Gerald Ford, a product of the Class of 1935, returned regularly to Ann Arbor. In 1994, Ford's #48 Michigan football jersey was retired at halftime of the Michigan-Michigan State game at Michigan Stadium. Before entering the world of politics, Ford played center on the 1932 and 1933 teams that won back-to-back national championships.
President Ford returned often to Ann Arbor.
Larry E. Wright | The Ann Arbor News
Ford would bring his friend and former rival in the 1976 Presidential Election, Jimmy Carter, to campus to co-host three conferences after both had left the Oval Office, according to the University of Michigan.
John F. Kennedy visited U-M on the eve of the 1960 Presidential Election, as commemorated by a marker on the steps of the Michigan Union where Kennedy gave his speech laying out the vision for the Peace Corps.
In his 1964 commencement address at Michigan, Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, outlined plans for what would become the Great Society program. Kennedy had been invited to speak initially, and Johnson kept the commitment after JFK's assassination. At the time, Johnson's speech was the most-attended non-football event in campus history.
Outside of President Bush in 1991 and then-United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in 1999, the '90s were a mixed bag. For every First Lady Hillary Clinton (1993) or Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer (1994), there was a university president (1990, and 1996-1998).
In 1997, U-M President Lee Bollinger gave the commencement address himself. Students said hearing their own president give the keynote address on a rainy spring day was far from ideal.
No matter who the keynote speaker is, U-M grads rejoice the end of college.
Leisa Thompson | The Ann Arbor News
Last decade started strong, as the Class of 2000 left town on the words of David Halberstam, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author.
Halberstam, who had graduated in the bottom half of his class at Harvard, went on to publish more than 20 books in his career. He encouraged the new grads to pursue their life passions.
"Other than the choice of a lifetime partner, nothing determines happiness so much as choosing the right kind of work," Halberstam said. "It is a choice about what is good for you, not what is good for others whom you greatly respect. The choice is not about what makes them happy, but about what makes you happy."
And 2003 was a good year, as U-M snagged newly-elected Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
In 2004, Coleman brought in David Davis Jr., the founder of Automotive Magazine, to show students the impact one man can have on an entire industry. By comparison, Michigan State wooed then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice for its 2004 commencement, while the University of Pennsylvania got Bono.
In 2007, U-M's commencement speaker was former president Bill Clinton, who drew a crowd of 60,000 to Michigan Stadium.
2008 was a special year, not as much for the keynote speaker - Bob Woodruff of ABC News, a U-M Law alum - but because it was the only commencement in U-M history held on the Diag. Michigan Stadium normally hosts spring commencement but was under construction at the time.
The Diag provided a special setting for commencement in 2008.
Lon Horwedel | The Ann Arbor News
Last year, U-M hit a home run when Google founder and Michigan alum Larry Page returned to encourage students to use their education for good. Page quoted from his father's commencement address at Flint Mandeville High School in 1956.
"We are entering a changing world, one...where education is an economic necessity. It is said that the future of any nation can be determined by the care and preparation given to its youth," Page said.
"If all the youths of America were as fortunate in securing an education as we have been, then the future of the United States would be even more bright than it is today."
The 2010 University of Michigan spring commencement ceremony begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 1 at Michigan Stadium. About 80,000 people are expected to attend.
James David Dickson can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com.
Get the Ann Arbor RSS Feed
AnnArbor.com