This school year has seen a lot of changes unfold within WGHS, especially as we start the countdown to graduation for our seniors. Earlier this year, the school board mentioned that the process for nominating and selecting the Class of 2025 Commencement Speaker would be changing this year, and these changes have shifted the commencement ceremony to one of selecting a good speaker to selecting the most popular person at school.
The commencement ceremony is meant to take the one person who embodies the shared values and experiences of every individual at WGHS and to allow them to speak on behalf of each student in a sort of “final hurrah” to the end of pre-collegial education; being both qualified in the integrity of the person themselves and the depth of tier speaking and communicative abilities.
This year, the administrators are requiring seniors to “vote with a neutral bias” on who they would like to have as a commencement speaker, following a specific rubric.
With these changes, though, there have been no steps taken to ensure that there will be fair voting amongst the students.
From the people I’ve talked to about the process, nobody has even remotely mentioned the “neutral bias” portion, (or event the entire rubric), and it gives the impression of most students going out and ignoring the instructions, and once again choosing the most popular person, invalidating most of the changes made this year.
Popularity should not be the sole basis for voting, as it leaves many potentially great speakers with the reality that they will not be recognized without it.
Letter to the editor by Ian Whitler (I was nominated for the Commencement speech, which is why I’m writing this about this issue.)
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