The death of the commencement address
Do you still remember what was said during your commencement address?
▲圖／翻攝自中國郵報
Many graduates of Kinmen University probably won't.
That's because many of them started leaving the hall even while National Tsing Hua University Honorary Professor Lee Chia-tong was giving his speech during their commencement ceremony over the weekend.
The lack of interest irked Lee, who called on the graduates to act their age. He said that the moment of graduation was an important part of each student's life.
"If you were to get up and leave during a speech by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Chairman Morris Chang, would you still be working there?" Lee asked.
Lee went on to lambaste "student privilege," adding that after graduation "you are nothing" and that a degree from Kinmen University was not a guarantee of anything.
Toward the end of his address, Lee urged the remaining audience to be competitive, adding that it was not easy to survive in this country. His address drew applause from university staff.
In response to the cold student reception to Lee's speech, National Taiwan University Professor Lee Mao-sheng said his colleague needed "to get with the times."
In a Facebook post Monday, the NTU professor said that while addressing high-school students in recent years, only two or three students were listening while the rest were either sleeping or chatting with other classmates.
"The course supervisor came up to me afterwards and apologized profusely. But I didn't think too much about it. I started to think about whether what I was talking about was what students wanted to listen to."
Lee said that the age in which professors had high social standing was a bygone era.
"Anyone can insult you at will," he wrote.
"If you don't want to be there, then don't attend, right? This applies to the lecturer and the listeners below."
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