Matt Lauer To Speak to Seniors

Today Show co-anchor Matt Lauer will address the Class of 2009 on Class Day, the Senior Class Committee announced yesterday.

Lauer joins a heterogeneous group of past speakers including Ben S. Bernanke ’75 last year, Bill Clinton in 2007, and Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the popular cartoon “Family Guy,” in 2006.

The Class Day speaker typically delivers a more light-hearted address to the College’s graduating senior class than the Commencement Day speech, which is given to all University graduates the next day.

Senior class First Marshal Lumumba B. Seegars ’09 said Lauer’s experiences as a journalist have provided him with an “inspiring” perspective to share with Harvard seniors.

“I think the good thing about Matt Lauer is that we are in a very interesting time in the world right now, and Matt Lauer is right in the middle of all those things,” Seegars said.

A graduate of Ohio University, Lauer joined NBC in 1994 and has anchored the Today Show—the network’s morning news and talk show—since 1997.

Seegars said that Lauer’s experiences interviewing scores of different people and traveling the world for the Today Show’s segment “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?” will allow the television personality to speak to seniors about the world outside the Harvard bubble.

Yet the choice of a television news personality for the June 3 student-focused celebration left some seniors less than thrilled.

“I’m sure he will be more entertaining than Ben Bernanke, but I was hoping for someone who hadn’t interviewed Britney Spears,” Maxwell S. Mishkin ’09, said of Lauer’s selection.

Though Mishkin said he thinks he will enjoy hearing Lauer speak, he said he had been hoping for a comedian to be selected.

In past years, the subcommittee of the Senior Class Committee responsible for selecting a Class Day speaker had alternated between comedic personalities such as Conan O’Brien ’85 and Sacha Baron Cohen, and more serious figures like former Meet the Press host Tim Russert.

“It’s a more lighthearted day, but that doesn’t mean just comedians,” Seegars said.

After hearing of Lauer’s selection, one senior created a Google Document online where seniors could write the names of people who they would prefer as the Class Day speaker to Lauer.

The names on the list ranged from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tiger Woods to “Ryan” from “The Office,” who is played by B.J. Novak ’01.

But Seegars said that Lauer’s speech will be relevant to seniors as they prepare to depart college for the real world.

“I think it will be a great bridge as we are deciding how we will approach the world,” Seegars said.

—Staff writer Lauren D. Kiel can be reached at lkiel@fas.harvard.edu.