Maryland’s Kermit the Frog Commencement Choice Gets Mixed Reaction From Students
The University of Maryland says it is honoring Jim Henson, an alumnus, with its choice of commencement speaker. Some students think it is avoiding “real issues.”Andrew Thompson, a senior at the University of Maryland, woke up on Wednesday to the news that his commencement speaker would not be a politician, tech executive or astronaut.Rather, he would be sent off into the work force by a cheery, fleece puppet the color of pea shoots: the “Muppet Show” star Kermit the Frog.That was great news for some students, who have already started calling the May graduation ceremony their “Ker-mencement.” Still, Mr. Thompson said that he and his roommates felt deflated. He didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but he couldn’t see why he was supposed to listen to life advice from a fictional character.“It’s a little silly, having a puppet as a commencement speaker,” said Mr. Thompson, 22, a mechanical engineering major.Perhaps silly was the point. Last spring, school after school struggled to keep their commencements from careening into controversial territory. The University of Southern California and Columbia University canceled their main-stage graduation ceremonies amid campus protests over Israel’s war in Gaza. An N.F.L. kicker dived into gender politics in a speech at Benedictine College in Kansas. And a university in Buffalo, N.Y., outsourced its commencement speech to an A.I. robot named Sophia.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More