Whoops, Wrong Wheaton

Please, give Ann Curry a break.

In her commencement address over the weekend at Wheaton College, in Massachusetts, the Today show anchor mentioned a number of notable alumni of Wheaton College — the one in Illinois. Making cameos in her speech were the evangelist Billy Graham, the horror-film director Wes Craven, and the 9/11 hero Todd Beamer, among others, The Boston Globe reports. All three are graduates of the Christian liberal-arts college in Wheaton, Ill., not the college in Norton, Mass.

(The college has released text and video versions of her speech with the erroneous parts edited out.)

The embarrassed Ms. Curry sent an open letter to the Massachusetts Wheaton apologizing for her gaffe: ”I am mortified by my mistake, and can only hope the purity of my motive, to find a way to connect with the graduates and to encourage them to a life of service, will allow you to forgive me.”

Here at Tweed, we do forgive her. We’re aware that mistaks misteaks errors do happen, and we appreciate how incredibly understanding our readers are whenever they occur.

Besides, given the number of inexplicably similar college names, it’s impossible for anyone but an expert to keep them straight. (Just ask the student who thought he was flying to Ithaca, N.Y., to visit Cornell University, but instead flew to Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where he spent four years at Cornell College and even played on the football team.)

At least Ms. Curry didn’t forget where she was. Earlier this month, the Orlando Sentinel reported, graduates at the University of Central Florida booed their commencement speaker, the Florida gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink, when she referred to UCF as “USF” — the University of South Florida — at least twice during her address.

Ms. Curry didn’t swipe any jokes, either, as the valedictorian of Columbia University’s School of General Studies apparently did on Monday. True/Slant tells how the comedian Patton Oswalt used his Twitter feed to call out the grad, Brian Corman, for appropriating Mr. Oswalt’s “Physics for Poets” routine. The New York Times follows with a report that Mr. Corman has subsequently apologized. Video links to Mr. Oswalt’s joke — Part 1 and Part 2 —and to Mr. Corman’s replay of it are available for those keeping score at home. (*Read a statement from Columbia University about the incident.)

As commencement speeches go, Ms. Curry’s Wheaton keynote was a good one — so good, a reader of the blog Talking Points Memo observes, that she gave the same address six days earlier to graduates of Providence College. Presumably, she didn’t namecheck any alums of Providence University, the Roman Catholic institution in Taiwan.

—Don Troop

(Image of Ann Curry: Wheaton College, in Norton, Mass.)

* UPDATE: The dean of Columbia ‘s School of General Studies issued a brief statement about the “Physics for Poets” affair:

It has come to our attention that a portion of our Valedictorian’s remarks at this year’s School of General Studies Class Day was taken from a comedy routine by Patton Oswalt. As an institution of higher learning that places a core value on respect for the works of others, we were surprised and disappointed to have learned of this matter today. Columbia University and the School of General Studies do not condone or permit the use of someone else’s work without proper citation. The student speaker has appropriately issued an apology to his classmates and to Mr. Oswalt for failing to provide such attribution.

Peter J. Awn
Dean
Columbia University School of General Studies