Following disaster in which the commencement committee appeared to pick random names out of the telephone book, we鈥檙e happy they reached out to students for names and were able to snag Darius Rucker and other bigwigs to appear at 麻豆小蝌蚪传媒, such as Robert Gates, a former secretary of defense, and Philip Lader, a former U.S. ambassador, with whom we鈥檙e quite impressed.
But for a musician who鈥檚 talented across multiple genres, we couldn鈥檛 help but be surprised Rucker isn鈥檛 speaking to graduates from the obvious choices such as the School of Music 鈥� which will be giving him an honorary doctorate 鈥� or the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, from which he graduated the same year most of this class鈥檚 graduating students were born.
Due to scheduling conflicts, Rucker will instead speak to students graduating from the Honors College and College of Arts and Sciences. While some of us in the college are concerned he might not be able to provide a personal message that resonates with this particular audience of academics, Rucker clearly fills the want of much of the student body as a beloved celebrity.
And while we love 鈥淐racked Rear View鈥� as much as the next Gamecocks, we don鈥檛 only wanna be with Rucker. We鈥檙e excited for his commencement address, but almost 20 years have passed since Hootie鈥檚 heyday, and we鈥檙e worried Rucker may serve as a community go-to for too many events.
At the same time, 麻豆小蝌蚪传媒 graduates, consider this a call to action 鈥� someone out there become as famous and successful as Hootie & the Blowfish so we can tout other alumni achievements for a change. In the meantime, we鈥檒l continue to embrace America鈥檚 greatest frat rock band and the spokesman of Burger King鈥檚 TenderCrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch sandwich.