Student diversity tongue-ties some graduation speakers - USATODAY.com: A week from Saturday, 453 new graduates will cross the commencement stage on the lawn of Macalester College in St. Paul Among them: Nokuthula Sikhethiwe Kitikiti, Udochukwu Chinyere Obodo, and Baitnairamdal Otgonshar.
Jayne Niemi will be ready.
No-oo-TOOL-a SEE-kay-tee-way Ki-tee-ki-tee. Oo-DO-chu-koo CHIN-yea-ray Oh-boe-doe. Bat-NAI-ram-dal OT-gone-shar.
Niemi's job is to read out the graduates' names without mangling them.
'People invest a lot of time and money and commitment to be here at Macalester and get this education, and they get one day of celebration in the end,' says Niemi, a college registrar who will spend several days studying pronunciation cards submitted by students. 'Their families are here from all over the world. I don't want to embarrass them or the college.'
Niemi is part of a cadre of deans, professors and even outsourced professional public speakers that is gearing up to perform one of academia's quirkier, and tougher, jobs — getting every name right, so nobody leaves campus feeling angry or ungenerous toward his or her alma mater.
