David Gergen, a White House adviser to four presidents and a current professor of the practice at the Terry Sanford Institute for Public Policy, will deliver the commencement address for the Class of 1995, President Nan Keohane announced Thursday.
"David Gergen has established himself as a popular professor and shrewd colleague in a few short months at Duke," Keohane said. "He brings a great deal of wisdom based on his unequaled record of working closely with four presidents. I know he will have an important message to share with the Class of 1995 and their families."
Keohane added that Gergen had received unanimous recommendations from the students, faculty and staff on the commencement committee.
University Marshal Pelham Wilder, who headed the commencement speaker search committee, said that the committee did extend an invitation to "a head of state" that was turned down prior to asking Gergen to speak. Wilder declined to name the recipient of the first invitation.
Still, Wilder said he and the committee are "highly enthusiastic" about Gergen.
"The students on the committee were very supportive and excited. I was guided in large measure by their reaction, and I think they were thinking of their fellow students."
But some seniors said they were not happy with the choice of speaker.
"I think we could definitely do a heck of a lot better," said Trinity senior Thomas Lehrman. "I'm surprised Duke couldn't find someone outside [the University] of high stature. It's disappointing."
Many of those who were not pleased with the choice said they were frustrated because this is the second consecutive year the University has selected a speaker from within the University community.
Last spring, University alumna and trustee Judy Woodruff, chief Washington correspondent for CNN, was chosen to deliver the commencement address after First Lady Hillary Clinton turned down an invitation.
Students also noted that Gergen has already spoken on campus numerous times.
"They should have known that it would be disappointing because of last year," said Trinity senior Pamela Johnson. "They should have looked harder to find someone good, and they could have done something more to prevent that from happening again."
Gergen joined the University faculty this semester and teaches an undergraduate course at the Sanford Institute's DeWitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism.
Immediately prior to his term at the University, Gergen served first as an adviser to President Clinton on foreign and domestic issues and later as a special adviser to both Clinton and Secretary of State Warren Christopher. He is an honors graduate of Yale University and continued his studies at Harvard Law School. By the age of 30, he had already entered the White House as head of President Richard Nixon's speech-writing team. In the interim, he has worked on President Ford's staff, been the editor of U.S. News and World Report, served as a political analyst on the "MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour" and been named a fellow at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School.
Denise Dunning contributed to this story.
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