"There comes a time around March when you needto have something," Santos says. "Time was runningdown, but we had a number of really good choiceswithin the University."
Simpson is not the only Kennedy Schoolaffiliate speaking this year.
David Gergen, adviser to four U.S. presidentsand a public service professor at the KennedySchool, is the Class Day speaker at Harvard LawSchool.
Although many at Harvard would prefer toattract the most famous speakers for Class Day,some say in-house speakers like Simpson create ahomey atmosphere for the day.
"The class gets to celebrate itself with a lotof people who are notable on campus," Davis says.
And many insist that Simpson was more than aconvenient choice. Students had requested him inthe initial House surveys.
"People had been pleased with speeches thatthey heard he had given in the past," Davis says.
Many praise Simpson and the way he combineshumor with an ability to express the complexitiesof life. They view him as a politician withintegrity and skill.
"A lot of the administrators here at theCollege said he'd be a great speaker," Jellissays.
In the end, what speakers are able to say tothe graduating class may be more important thantheir personal fame.
Harvard's Cambridge neighbor, MIT, chosebrothers Thomas L. Magliozzi and Raymond F.Magliozzi, hosts of the National Public Radio(NPR) program "Car Talk," to speak at itscommencement, which took place last Friday.
Although the brothers' show is popular, somesaw their selection as unconventional. Past MITspeakers include President Clinton and UnitedNations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
MIT President Charles M. Vest says thebrothers' ability to relate to the experiences ofMIT undergraduates was one of the major reasonsthey were chosen.
Both brothers, known to the American public as"Click and Clack," are MIT graduates.
MIT students say the speakers brought a newperspective to the school.
"You don't have to change the world throughpolitics," says Eric Krevice Prebys, who graduatedfrom MIT this spring. "You can just be a funny guyon the radio.