Protect free speech, graduates told

ore than 1,200 bachelor's and master's degree candidates from the College received their diplomas during the University's 154th Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 16. They also heard a timely speech on retaining freedom of expression in the media from Commencement speaker Barry Meyer '64, chairman and CEO of Warner Brothers Entertainment, who received the Hutchison Medal, the University's highest award for alumni.

Referring to calls for "prior restraint-preventive regulation" following Janet Jackson's performance at this year's Super Bowl, he described the incident as tasteless and inappropriate but cautioned, to audience applause, "It must not be used as an excuse to launch us down the slippery slope of restricting legitimate expression.

"Neither should political expedience," he continued, explaining the public has "the right to have its emotions stirred" by pictures of flag-draped coffins or a recitation of the names of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Meyer also discussed what he sees as the second dangerous trend in media and entertainment, a trend made easier by digital advancements: the call for unlimited distribution of copyrighted material. Noting the long history of copyright laws, he underscored the necessity of fair compensation and artistic control and how their curtailment could remove artists' incentive and, consequently, reduce diversity of choice.

"The protection of an artist's rights to what he has created and owns must not be dismantled just because there are new, easy methods of circumventing those laws," he noted.

Also at the ceremony, acclaimed author Andrea Barrett, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction in 1996 and the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, and Arunas Chesonis, chairman and chief executive officer of PAETEC Communications, received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

In separate ceremonies, mezzo-soprano Joyce Castle '66 (MM) addressed graduates at the Eastman School; New York State Teacher of the Year and Warner School doctoral student Lynn Gatto delivered the commencement address for Warner; and Linda Janczak, president and executive officer of Thompson Health in Canandaigua, was the speaker for the School of Nursing.

In addition, at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences' diploma ceremony, graduates heard from Richard Palermo, executive vice president and chief consulting officer at the management consulting firm Strategic Triangle.

The Simon School will hold its main Commencement ceremony on June 13, at which Muriel Siebert, the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, will speak.

The University is conferring a total of 2,462 bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees this year, including the School of Medicine and the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration.

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