As an adviser to this year's Class Day speaker selection committee, it was former Wyoming Senator Alan K. Simpson's job to invite the committee's speaker choices.

But when Simpson, the director of the Institute of Politics (IOP), asked talk show host Oprah Winfrey if she would speak at Class Day ceremonies, Winfrey said no. When he asked Senator John H. Glenn (D-Ohio), a former astronaut, Glenn also said no. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell had the same answer.

Three rejections in hand, and the spring semester already underway, Simpson returned to the committee.

"I said, 'Now, who do you want me to try to track down.' They said, 'You,'" Simpson says. "It wouldn't matter to me if I were 10th choice...I said I'd be honored to do it."

While many say Simpson will bring the right blend of humor and thought to the Class Day speech, some members of this year's graduating class wonder why the College was unable to find someone more renowned, admits Class Marshal Jante C. Santos '99.

The College's list of previous Class Day speakers reads like a Who's Who of famous people. It includes renowned humanitarian Mother Theresa, broadcaster Walter Cronkite and home run king Hank Aaron.

This year's difficulty in getting speakers to accept an invitation is casting a spotlight on how the Class Day speaker selection process relegates Harvard to the unfamiliar position of underdog.

Administrators say Harvard's policy of beginning the search process in the fall often means that speakers' schedules are already full when they are asked.

"These are people whose lives fill up six to eight months in advance," Simpson says. And in recent years, prominent figures have had more obligations, making Harvard's task difficult.

Perhaps just as important, Harvard does not pay or give honorary degrees to Class Day speakers, while many other institutions do.

Coming from Behind

Harvard begins the process for selecting Class Day speaker candidates after the class marshals are chosen in early October.

Two of the class marshals chair the committee that plans Class Day and oversees the selection of the speaker. This year's faculty advisers to the committee were University Marshal Richard M. Hunt, Director of the Harvard Foundation S. Allen Counter and Simpson.

At the outset, each House submits a list of speaker choices compiled by its students--a list that typically ranges from Kermit the Frog to more serious candidates such as Simpson.

The committee then begins to invite the candidates, starting with the most-requested speaker--this year, Winfrey.