NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Mayor who?
That was the reaction of some students at Yale University on hearing that alumnus Kurt L. Schmoke will speak at commencement this weekend.
"Kurt Schmoke? What does he do?" astonished senior Bill Mack said soon after the mayor's selection was announced in April.
In fact, the choice of Mr. Schmoke, who graduated from Yale in 1971 and is a member of the Yale board of trustees, created a controversy that dominated the editorial pages of the student newspaper, The Yale Daily News, for several days.
"I think many people were disappointed that the committee could not find a higher-profile speaker," said Jeff Glasser, editor in chief of the newspaper. Other students said that choosing a speaker who is also a member of Yale's board of trustees was a cop-out.
Yalies from Maryland -- 43 of the 1,254 seniors -- were more supportive of the mayor.
"I think that Kurt Schmoke is perfect for Class Day," said junior Josh Civin, a Baltimore native who represents Yale on the New Haven city legislature. "He's an idea person, a big picture person. He's willing to take the lead with ideas like drug legalization and privatizing schools."
Technically, Mr. Schmoke is the speaker for Yale's Class Day, which occurs the day before commencement. By tradition, the commencement speech is reserved for the president of the university. The Class Day speaker is chosen by a student committee and gets neither a fee nor an honorary degree.
Still, Yale has been able to get some high-profile speakers. President George Bush, class of 1948, and actress Jodie Foster, class of 1984, have both spoken in recent years.
Mr. Schmoke's Yale experience and "all his public service" as mayor of Baltimore made him an ideal candidate, Class Day committee co-chairwoman Andrea Hsu said.
When the Class Day committee surveyed students, they found that "fame and so on were really not all that important," she said.
Mr. Schmoke had a key role in Yale history. As a megaphone-toting supporter of the Black Panthers in 1970, he led a student march on then-university President Kingman Brewster's house to demand that Mr. Brewster advocate the release of imprisoned Panthers. Breaking centuries of tradition, Mr. Schmoke barged into a closed faculty meeting to demand professors' support.
As a self-appointed "student marshal" during 1970's tense student demonstrations in May, Mr. Schmoke was credited with helping to keep the peace in New Haven.
As a Rhodes scholar, sports letterman and member of the secretive and powerful Wolf's Head Society, he succeeded in more traditional channels as well.
Henry Chauncey, Mr. Brewster's right-hand man during the 1970 protests, remembers Mr. Schmoke with fond respect. "He would push you, push you, push you to change your practices, but didn't use violence," Mr. Chauncey said. "He was a responsible leader of progressive and radical students."
Mr. Schmoke's years at Yale ushered in coeducation, ethnic studies programs and ethnic houses and more constructive town-gown relations, all hallmarks of modern Yale.
Mr. Civin said Mr. Schmoke's tempered leadership stopped Yale from resembling Kent State University, the Ohio school where four students were fatally shot by the National Guard in 1970. "As a key student leader from that time, it's really fitting" that he speak, Mr. Civin said.
