The University recently selected Judge J. Harvey Wilkinson, III, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, to deliver its commencement address May 17.
Wilkinson, who graduated from the University’s Law School in 1972, served as the first student member of the Board of Visitors.
“I feel really, deeply humbled by the honor,” Wilkinson said, noting that his devotion to the University stretches back to his childhood.
After graduating from the Law School, he served as a Law School professor, then as the editorial page editor of the Norfolk-based Virginian-Pilot and later as a deputy assistant U.S. attorney general, according to the Federal Judicial Center’s Web site. He was appointed to Court of Appeals in 1984.
Wilkinson, like all University commencement speakers, was selected by University President John T. Casteen, III, Board of Visitors Secretary Sandy Gilliam said.
Though Casteen was free to select any speaker he wished, he also was given a list of 10 possible candidates prepared by a large committee of faculty and students, Gilliam said. The committee included student leaders from the University’s contracted independent organizations, including the Honor Committee and Student Council, as well as faculty with connections to individuals who could have been chosen as the speaker, Gilliam added.
Gilliam said Wilkinson was one of the 10 potential speakers on the committee’s list not just because he is a University alumnus and former BOV student member, but also because he has been a highly distinguished lawyer and judge. Gilliam also noted that Wilkinson is an articulate speaker who lives in Charlottesville.
Gilliam said the University has several rules it must follow when selecting a commencement speaker.
“Number one, the University does not offer honorary degrees,” he said. “We never have. Thomas Jefferson said we shouldn’t, so we don’t.”
In addition to expecting an honorary degree, Gilliam noted that most speakers “on the big name speakers circuit” also expect to receive hefty fees, which Gilliam said the University does not pay.
Heads of state also are not selected as speakers. He noted that when then-Vice President George H.W. Bush delivered the commencement address, the security concerns made it so that the speaker — not the graduating class — was the center of attention.
Gilliam added that commencement addresses are a time for the speaker to “impart words of wisdom and advice” to the graduating students and that the selection of a University alumnus allows students to hear from a speaker who understands and is invested in the institution.
“It’s really possible to love an institution in the same way it’s possible to love individuals, and that’s the way I feel about the University,” Wilkinson said. “It’s been such an important part of my life, and I was really touched to be asked.”
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