Anonymous
By Andrea Estrada, UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Barbara is pleased to announce that media executive, talk show host, author and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey will deliver the keynote address to the Class of 2021 at the campus’s special online commencement ceremony in June.
Internationally renowned not only for her many accomplishments, but also for her wisdom, her generosity of spirit and her gift of inspiration, Winfrey will address graduates Saturday, June 12, beginning a day of multiple virtual or small in-person celebrations arranged by the university’s schools, academic divisions and departments, as allowed by public health orders.
Current public health orders place restrictions on large public gatherings, so the campus is unable to host its traditional ceremonies. Even so, Chancellor Henry T. Yang wrote in a message to students and other members of the campus community, “we want to recognize all you have accomplished during your time at UC Santa Barbara. In this spirit, we will hold a year-end celebration with an extraordinary guest speaker.
“My wife, Dilling, and I spoke with [Winfrey] and invited her to deliver a message of inspiration in honor of our graduating class, and she graciously accepted,” Yang continued.
Winfrey is the chief executive officer of Harpo, Inc, overseeing Harpo Films, Harpo Productions, her television network OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and the print and digital content of “Oprah Daily,” formerly known as “O, The Oprah Magazine.” Winfrey hosts the award-winning series “Super Soul” on discovery+ and “The Oprah Conversation” on Apple TV+. She is an acclaimed actress, best-selling author and the recipient of numerous accolades and awards, most notably the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by President Barack Obama in 2013.
Winfrey also is a dedicated philanthropist, building a school in South Africa that opened in 2007 and contributing more than $200 million toward providing education for academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. She has donated $20 million to Morehouse College in Atlanta, and in 2020 donated over $12 million to various COVID-19 relief efforts throughout the country. Additionally, Winfrey is a founding donor of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. In June 2018, the museum opened “Watching Oprah: The Oprah Winfrey Show and American Culture,” an exhibit exploring Winfrey’s life and her talk show’s impact, featuring artifacts from the set, costumes from her movies and interactive interviews.
To experience some of the pomp and circumstance of a traditional commencement ceremony, graduating students also are invited to participate in the campus’s in-person 2021 Grad Walk, which will take place during the week of June 7. Grad Walk will allow students to participate in a graduation processional that includes having their names read aloud as they cross a stage, and photographs taken with the campus lagoon as the backdrop. The event will be live-streamed so parents, guardians, families and friends can share in the celebration virtually.
Class of 2020 graduates, who were not able to have an in-person experience last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, also are invited to join the Grad Walk. Information on how to reserve a Grad Walk time and details about safety protocols are posted on the campus’s Commencement website.
Will this be live-streamed for us to all view? I hope so.
And thanks edhat for deleting the bigoted and baiting comments from the same gross people who continuously post.
They are (were) factual comments- Simply said, she IS one of the most powerful and wealthiest women in the United States. How in anyone’s world is that “bigoted” A-161…? PLEASE explain. Apparently, Edhat will delete comments that don’t meet a certain narrative. Free speech? Not so much.
Coast, you have a longstanding history of posting covert and overt discriminatory comments on edhat that would be grounds for being banned from the site, yet they let you continue to post. That is your free speech. Although edhat is a private company and has no obligation to let you do so. The comments that were deleted were because you making a jab at national movement to provide equality and you made did this comment based on Oprah’s skin color, but you already knew that. Stop being gross.
@SBSURF that is YOUR perception- take your WOKE glasses off and just think common sense . This is the same Oprah who watered (s) her grass and landscaping in extreme drought. This is the same Oprah who flies her personal jet and helicopter all over the world. Kudos to all her accomplishments, as she has many. She also gives to political organizations that I and perhaps others are not so supportive of- Does that qualify me as a covert racist? Our cancel-culture and media walks a fine line deciding WHO is inappropriate and who is simply stating facts- but “facts” are based on perceptions now.
Ugh, I can’t believe I’m even attempting to debate with someone of your low level reasoning but I must be bored today.
Fact: You wrote, “I wonder if she’ll mention how ‘systemic racism’, that is apparently rampant in our country, has affected her personally… How it’s prevented her from success.” Would you have written this is she was white? Nope. Does her being wealthy mean she isn’t affected by systemic racism? Nope. Did I call you a racist? Nope, but you called yourself that so….
Without regard to the undertones of suspected racism, a rational mind has to note that a celebrity entertainer who makes her fortune by gossip and cozying up to power is not a model for intellectual pursuit. In addition she has not, in our community, demonstrated her willingness to do without the things that are asked of the rest of the population. I find her selection degrading to the idea of an academic institution.
Agree100%, not a fan. why is that cause for deletion – wokeness I guess
When did the word woke become an insult? Maybe because it is not as acceptable to the not so silent majority as enlightened? Oprah has just as much right as any other entertainer to entertain the graduating collegiates. She didn’t make the rules, but has done very well by them. Kudos to her.
Raving lunatic is back. News flash. This thread is about Oprah. I knew someone that worked an event at her house. They said she is not a nice person at all.