By Don Oldenburg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 13, 2006; C01

Three Princeton University seniors are feeling pretty good about themselves these days. As Class Day chairmen, Harrison Frist, Lauren Bush and Shaun Callaghan had the job of arranging for a top-drawer speaker for the event, part of the school's commencement next month. Frist is the son of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Bush is the niece of President Bush, and they were successful in landing their first choice.

Bill Clinton.

"Very cool! It's awesome," Princeton Class of 2006 President Christopher Lloyd said of the reaction on campus to landing the former president for the first of four addresses he will give this graduation season.

The current White House occupant is fully booked, too, of course. As are thousands of other politicians, writers, comedians, athletes . . . and the guy who starred in "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper." (Mark Curry, in case you've somehow forgotten. He'll address the graduates of Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, Pa., next Saturday.)

Under pressure to find speakers who are galvanizing, glamorous or at least able to keep the students awake, universities compete against one another. They pull strings, poll students for suggestions, even dispense big bucks to reach for the stars who might inspire their grads with a lasting message. And the invitees consider just as strategically where their adages and assurances will get best play (or pay).

For President Bush, it made sense to speak last Saturday to the graduating class at Oklahoma State University. Oklahoma's a conservative state that cast 66 percent of its votes for him in 2004. The last sitting president to speak at an OSU commencement -- his father, George H.W. Bush, in 1990 -- got a warm reception. Even Watergate-scandalized Richard Nixon, his approval ratings lower than Bush's slumping numbers, got a group hug at OSU's 1974 commencement, three months before he resigned from office.

"If you read the papers, you know that when some want to criticize me, they call me a cowboy," said Bush, invoking OSU's nickname to loud applause from 30,000 graduates, families and faculty. "This cowboy is proud to be standing here in the midst of a lot of other Cowboys."

Never mind that 350 protesters demonstrated outside Boone Pickens Stadium and that some grads decorated their mortarboards with antiwar statements. The president will take that 30,000 vs. 350 ratio any day. And as new grad Leslie Wiesman said: "I am personally thrilled that he is speaking. . . . Whether or not they admit it, many graduating seniors feel the same."

The sites of Bush's three other speeches this season were equally logical. Each year the commander in chief gives the address at one of the U.S. service academies. Bush will visit two: West Point and the Merchant Marine Academy. As for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where Bush spoke Thursday, the school suffered $17 million in damage and lost 28 percent of its student enrollment after Hurricane Katrina hit last summer. The president's response to the storm was widely criticized, so it may have been good politics to schedule this, the first commencement speech ever given by a sitting president at a community college.

"Achieving a college degree is always a happy time for students and families," said MGCCC spokeswoman Colleen Hartfield. "But in these circumstances, there is a greater emotion about this milestone. Most importantly, his presence honors our graduates."

The method by which commencement speakers are selected varies from college to college. At some campuses, students draw up wish lists; at others, college presidents make the choice alone.

At the University of Pennsylvania, where actress Jodie Foster will speak, the process takes two years, says University Secretary Leslie Kruhly, who oversees the selection of speakers.

With input from students and faculty, a trustee committee makes a list of potential speakers who meet the university's criteria. "They have to actually speak well and have something compelling to talk to the graduates about," Kruhly said. From that list, the university's president makes the final decision and extends the invitation. Last year, it was U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan; the year before, U2 singer Bono.

Other speaking gigs arise from ties that bind. CNN correspondent John King is speaking at Hobart and William Smith Colleges because its president, Mark Gearan, has known him since Gearan was handling communications for the Dukakis campaign and King was at the Associated Press. Actor William Hurt will address the 500 graduates -- including his son Alexander -- of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. And Bill Clinton will head to the University of Texas's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs because its new dean, James Steinberg, served as his deputy national security adviser. "I realize there is a lot of competition," Steinberg said. "I'm obviously grateful."

Why did first lady Laura Bush make Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., one of just two commencement addresses she's giving? She shares with Paula Nirschel, wife of university President Roy Nirschel, an interest in educating young Afghan women.

Michael Schoinfeld, Vanderbilt University's vice chancellor for public affairs, said the first lady accepted his school's invitation because "there are some Vanderbilt alums working in the White House." It didn't hurt that the governor of her home state, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, is a Vandy dad.

That a former president could be in greater demand than the incumbent is not surprising. Even longtime Clinton foes acknowledge his impressive oratorical skills.

The former president will address the 147th commencement at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, the Lower Manhattan school founded on such principles as free tuition and advocacy of social change. Cooper Union President George Campbell Jr. credits the school's extraordinary history for luring great speakers. Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and Orson Welles are just a few of the dozens of history-book figures who have graced its stage.

But as so often is the case regarding top commencement speakers, it's whom you know and what paths have crossed. Campbell planted the idea when he and Clinton shared the dais at the 2003 Syracuse University commencement.

Clinton wouldn't disclose how many speaking invitations he received, but hundreds is a good guess. (He accepted only four.) But he did reveal his central message to grads. "I always urge them to have dreams that are both timely and timeless, to try to live their dreams knowing that life's real regrets are more rooted in not trying than in not succeeding, and to find joy in the effort," Clinton said in an e-mail last week.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the senator from New York who is up for reelection this year, will speak at only four of the state's colleges. She visited Buffalo State University last Saturday, and will also travel to Long Island University's C.W. Post campus, Genesee Community College and Adelphi University.

Today, the attention of much of the political world will be focused on Lynchburg, Va., where Sen. John McCain will speak to graduates of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. The two men exchanged some unkind words six years ago when McCain ran for the Republican presidential nomination. The senator from Arizona is considered a likely candidate again in 2008, and political observers have suggested that he is trying to shore up support from the party's right wing by visiting Falwell's campus -- and risking the ire of longtime supporters who see the move as a sellout.

Most universities settle for small-splash speakers such as state politicians or captains of local industry, but others aggressively enter the celebrity lottery. Generally this means bestowing an honorary degree and covering travel expenses, rather than paying a fee. "We consider it an honor to speak at our commencement," said Penn's Kruhly.

But some offer big bucks. Katie Couric, the soon-to-be CBS anchor, will receive $110,000 to speak at the University of Oklahoma's commencement -- all paid for from private funds, the university emphasizes.

Often, speakers discount their fees, or forgo them altogether. Bill Clinton, who can command more than $150,000 for speaking engagements, isn't taking money for commencement remarks. Stephen R. Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," is speaking at Southern Utah University, reportedly for a small fraction of his usual fee of $50,000 to $75,000.

"There are some things, like a commencement address or a major fundraiser, where I would expect a speaker wouldn't ask for a fee," said Media Relations Director Tracy Schario at George Washington University, which gets two speakers for the price of none: Former president George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, aren't being paid. The couple will give a "co-speech" at GW's ceremonies May 21 on the Mall.

In Boston that same day, Bush 41's onetime Democratic opponent, Michael Dukakis, and his wife, Kitty, will speak at Lesley University. Kitty's a Lesley alum who taught dance there years ago. The school's president, Margaret McKenna, former deputy counsel to President Jimmy Carter, said she invited the Dukakises after seeing them at a Lesley reunion a couple of years ago and finding both on the board's list of nominations for honorary degrees. "I thought, this makes a lot of sense -- let's have them together," she said.

Oh, and another couple: Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush will team up once again to speak today at Tulane University in New Orleans.

In sheer numbers, it's a good year for nationally recognized journalists -- more than a dozen of them speaking somewhere. Tom Brokaw is speaking at Stanford (one of his daughters is an alumna), at the invitation of Stanford President John Hennessy, based on the recommendations of four senior-class presidents who culled suggestions from seniors.

At Marymount University in Arlington, where former secretary of state Colin L. Powell will give the address, speakers are nominated by students and faculty, "but the final decisions are made by the administration," said Shelley Dutton, Marymount's vice president for communications. This year, Marymount made the process easier by putting a nomination form online.

In recent years some top colleges have prided themselves on getting headliner comedians. Harvard commencements have featured Will Ferrell, Al Franken and Conan O'Brien, and Princeton got Chevy Chase, Jon Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld. The comedy coup of this spring belongs to Knox College in Illinois, which lured Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. He was nominated by students, invited by Knox President Roger Taylor -- and additionally invited by Knox alum and former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta.

Not all choices are greeted so enthusiastically. The Daily Californian student newspaper reports that seniors at Cal Berkeley are listless over the choice of State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Some Penn seniors are "underwhelmed" by Jodie Foster, the school newspaper reports, and are carping that she wasn't on the students' list of contenders. "No matter whoever is chosen, there is always a discontented group," Kruhly said. "There has never been anyone who has satisfied everyone."

At Florida's Nova Southeastern University, novelist Salman Rushdie's speech Sunday caused a commotion. Islamic students boycotted the ceremonies and protested because of Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses," whose publication in 1988 led Iran to issue a death edict against him.

"It's an unusual year," said Don Rosenblum, dean of Nova Southeastern's undergraduate school. "There has been a lot of significant response to speakers -- this person is too liberal, this person is too conservative, this person doesn't deserve an honorary degree. But Mr. Rushdie represents all of the critical values and goals for a commencement speaker."

Sometimes events overtake those who plan them. Tiffin University's media director, Lisa Williams, got the news May 5 that Porter Goss -- scheduled to give the commencement speech at the Ohio school the next day -- had resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Goss kept his date with the school, which boasts a national security studies program. "Admit nothing, deny everything and make counteraccusations," was what Goss said he'd advise grads if they were about to become CIA case officers, the Associated Press reported.

And sometimes you just can't win. The University of Hartford planned for Charlie Rose to speak at its commencement -- until the PBS talk-show host underwent heart valve surgery in March. So Hartford will go with renowned structural engineer Charles Thornton and Connecticut State Treasurer Denise Nappier.

But Hartford isn't letting Rose totally off the hook. "We hope," said the university's statement announcing the cancellation, "that he will be able to attend a commencement ceremony in December 2006 or May 2007."