A group of Princeton students wrote an opinion letter in the school newspaper expressing their dissatisfaction with the selection of Marshawn Lynch as a “Class Day” speaker. The event will take place before the graduation and will highlight the achievements of the honorary members of the class. The main concern of the students was a lack of transparency in the process of choosing Lynch and the fact that it was difficult for them to discern a fixed criterion for the speaker from being selected.
“As seniors, we have been looking forward to the speaker for months now,” said the letter. “Many of us were disappointed when we saw that this year’s speaker was to be Marshawn Lynch, mainly because we didn’t feel included in the process by which this speaker was appointed and ultimately selected.”
The letter then goes briefly on the complementary path, noting Lynch’s accomplishments in the field in tandem with his charitable work in his Oakland community and his social activism. He even notes that the students have no problem with Lynch himself, just the process with which he was chosen.
However, the letter goes on to point out that the last two speakers either had ties to Princeton or were “exceptional communicators”. So much so as not to “criticize this choice of speaker in particular”,
Actress Ellie Kemper and Senator Cory Booker are the last two interveners. Kemper graduated from school in 2002, and Booker “is first associated with New Jersey and therefore Princeton”, which surely makes sense to someone.
Lynch’s connection to Princeton is practically zero, so it’s clear why he is disqualified from this specific criterion. But there is not exactly a reasonable explanation for why he failed at the second point of not being an “exceptional communicator”. The letter quotes his famous “I’m just here not to be fined” before Super Bowl XLIX, and other past fines he received for not speaking to the media. Perhaps students believe that, since Lynch was bad at talking to reporters, he would not be able to speak to a group of seniors in Princeton, probably after being fed the food served there and staying in the accommodation luxury they provide.
In the second half of the letter, the students state that “the selection committee did not represent a sufficiently broad spectrum of perspectives” when choosing Lynch to speak during the day of class. But maybe the selection committee just chose someone who could offer something different from what past speakers could do.
Lynch is a five-time pro bowler who won a Super Bowl with the Seahawks in 2014 and will be a free agent starting March 18. In his 11 years as a pro, he ran for 10,413 yards and 85 touchdowns while spending time in Buffalo. , Seattle and Oakland. Last season, he signed a contract with the Seahawks at the end of the year to play a regular season game and two playoff games.