As the May 25 commencement ceremony quickly approaches, the college has quietly altered the selection process for the student speaker. Student Government Association (SGA) President Brandon Straker ’25, known as B Striker, will be the only student speaker at commencement, marking a departure from the college’s tradition of allowing a student committee to choose a speaker from the pool of candidates.
For previous commencements, the college accepted video and written submissions from student speaker candidates, which were then reviewed by a committee of their peers. However, this year, the college did not solicit speech proposals from the senior class, choosing Striker as speaker solely for his SGA presidential role.
This change in procedure follows two commencements — the class of 2024.5 graduation in February and the class of 2024 graduation last May — in which the chosen student speaker deviated from their pre-approved script to denounce the college’s alleged investments in the war in Gaza.
Vice President for Student Affairs Smita Ruzicka confirmed that the administration changed the selection processes for this commencement as a direct result of those previous speeches.
“We took a different approach this year, to primarily address concerns from our community regarding the most recent Feb Celebration and last May’s Commencement student speakers… I want to stress that it was not the content of the [February] speech that was unacceptable — ours is a community that values and supports open expression — but rather the circumvention of the selection process,” Ruzicka wrote in an email to The Campus.
The removal of the nomination process and student selection panel has prompted frustration amongst the senior class. Macy Daggitt ’25 was interested in submitting a speech for commencement until she found out that B Striker had been appointed.
“I personally think that it was unfair for the administration to select the grad speaker on behalf of the class without consultation. I think there are lots of great public speakers in our class who would have very compelling and interesting things to say. Denying our class the ability to choose who we want to represent us at our own commencement is against the spirit of the day and the liberal arts education,” Daggitt wrote in an email to The Campus.
However, Striker said he thought the decision makes sense.
“I feel like they did what they felt like they had to do to uphold the student speaker tradition. I understand, as does the student commencement speaker selection committee, that there will be discussions about how best to choose the student speaker going forward, and that the selection method for this May’s graduation should be temporary,” he wrote in an email to The Campus.
Striker reflected his gratitude for the opportunity to speak and hinted at some of the topics he hopes to touch on.
“With all the ways we've shared with this place and all the ways this place has shared with us, I feel humbled, reflective, and filled with Middlebury pride to speak these things into the narrative we’ve shaped together as the Class of 2025,” he wrote.
Last week the college announced that Chuck Davis will deliver the 2025 commencement address. Davis, a career investment banker and philanthropist, attended Middlebury for two years before failing out and transferring to the University of Vermont.
He currently serves as CEO of Stone Point Capital, a Greenwich, Ct.-based investment firm which manages over $45 billion of assets primarily in the global financial services industry. Stone Point recruited interns from Middlebury for the first time this year, according to a Middlebury student who wished to remain anonymous.
The Honorary Degrees Committee is the trustee committee charged with recommending Commencement speakers and candidates for honorary degrees to Interim President Steve Snyder. This year’s committee consisted of two students, Josh Harkins ’25 and Maxine Sarrosa ’25, as well as two faculty members, Peter Matthews, professor of Economics, and Brett Millier, professor of English and American literature. Matthews is one of 12 economics faculty members who pledged to boycott the commencement ceremony in protest of recent budget cuts.
The recommendation process is not public and Harkins was unable to disclose whether Davis was among the candidates recommended by the committee. However, Harkins told The Campus that he was not aware that Davis would be the speaker before the college’s announcement to the public.
After being announced as the speaker, Davis and his team published a preliminary website dedicated to Davis’s commencement speech. The website, called “middkit.com,” opens to a homepage which reads, “Coming Soon,” and a clock counting down to the exact moment of the start of the commencement ceremony. Across the site’s tabs, visitors can read information about Davis and listen to his previous speeches and interviews. One of the tabs, “The Kit,” explains his intention to provide resources for the Middlebury community beyond the commencement ceremony.
“Having only lasted 2 years at Middlebury, having flunked out both years, you are clearly ahead of where I was,” the website reads. “I hope to provide you with a tool kit to help you live a happy and productive life. In addition, I will be available to the class of 2025 after graduation in case any of you want to engage.”
Vice President for Advancement Dan Courcey explained in an email to The Campus that Davis will reference the site in his speech and send a note via the alumni office to all 2025 graduates with the link to the site and an invitation for interested graduates to engage in virtual discussion with him and his team.
This offer of resources to graduating students is unique amongst Middlebury commencement speakers, as speakers in recent years have provided neither a website nor advice to graduates in any official format.
Correction 5/8/25: This article has been updated to correct the misspelling of one of the commencement speaker's names. It is spelled Brandon Straker, not Striker.
Maggie Bryan '25 (she/her) is the Senior News Editor.
Maggie is a senior at Middlebury, majoring in Environmental Policy and French. She previously held roles as Senior Arts and Culture Editor, Arts and Culture Editor, and Staff. During her free time, she loves running, listening to live music, drinking coffee, and teaching spin classes. She is from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
