To Molly Matthews, having Mary Karr chosen as the 2015 commencement speaker was a “cop-out.”

“If I wanted to hear her talk, I would’ve taken one of her classes,” said Matthews, a senior advertising and art history dual major.

Following the announcement that Karr, an award-winning poet and professor, would deliver the keynote address at the joint Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF commencement ceremony in the Carrier Dome on Sunday, many students expressed disappointment in the choice. While some said they were familiar with Karr’s work, most agreed it would have been better to have someone from outside the university deliver the address.

Karr, a professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, also teaches in the Creative Writing program and is the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of Literature at SU.

Some seniors said the fact that Karr was a professor at SU made the 2015 commencement address less exciting and somewhat disappointing.

Karr is the author of The New York Times best-selling memoirs “The Liars’ Club” and “Cherry,” as well as New York Times best-seller “Lit,” the sequel to those two memoirs. In addition, Karr was formerly a poetry columnist for The Washington Post.

MacKenzie Maloney, a senior advertising major, said she had heard of Karr through her books, but she was still disappointed the university didn’t get someone outside of the SU community.

Maloney added that she thought it was “obvious that someone else dropped out” and that SU “could’ve found someone else who was cooler.”

Amber Evans, a senior information management major, said having Karr as a speaker doesn’t feel that prestigious, especially since public figures like Hillary Clinton have spoken at the university before.

“It would’ve been nice if a person from outside of Syracuse was speaking so we could get a different perspective,” Evans said. “It means more if the speaker’s from outside of Syracuse. I mean, why did they pick her?”

In order to choose the 2015 commencement speaker, 2015 class marshals Ashlee Newman and Ronald Taylor, along with one or two marshals representing each school or college at SU, decided on a list of recommended speakers, Newman said.

Newman added that once the list was finalized in spring 2014, the group of 20-30 marshals submitted it to the university administration, where the final decision was made for Karr to be the 2015 commencement speaker.

Newman said the submitted recommendations for that year’s commencement speaker are never a guarantee and the administration could ultimately decide upon a speaker who was not on the original list.

Since both the list and the selection process are confidential, Newman and Taylor, who are both senior public policy and political science dual majors, were unable to say if Karr was on the original recommendation list that they helped submit to the SU administration.

Taylor declined to comment on his opinion of Karr as this year’s commencement speaker.

“I think that (Karr) will be a great representation of the wonderful people that are a part of the Syracuse University faculty,” Newman said in a text message.

Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs, said in an email that Karr was ultimately chosen as the 2015 commencement speaker because she is “an exceptional writer and teacher.”

Quinn said he did not think the fact that Karr is a professor at SU would have any real effect on this year’s commencement address, “other than it is a nice change for one of our own to have the honor of delivering the commencement speech.”

“I think it’s rare for someone to attain prominence in so many genres: in poetry, literary criticism, memoirs, essays, screen writing and song writing,” Quinn said. “(Karr is) someone who will share with graduates a unique perception on the world in a very meaningful way.”

Published on May 7, 2015 at 8:00 am

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann