Although a tradition underlies the selection process of the graduate student commencement speaker, this year confusion muddled the path.

For the past four years, the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award, an annual award the Graduate Student Senate gives to a faculty member, has spoken at the graduate student commencement ceremony.

The speaker is supposed to alternate between someone selected by OU's College of Osteopathic Medicine and the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award, President Robert Glidden said via e-mail.

"The tradition has been a three-year rotation: two years for the Outstanding Graduate Faculty member and then one year for the College of Osteopathic Medicine, since they share that commencement," Glidden said. "Most recently, however, we had three years of outstanding graduate faculty members because the College of Osteopathic Medicine passed last year."

But the exact rotation schedule is unclear to the graduate senate, award recipients, faculty and staff members and some administrators, even though it began almost 10 years ago, said Joel Rudy, dean of students and vice president of student affairs.

Some university officials have said the rotation is every five years, while others say it is every two years. Some did not know the speaker selection alternated. Glidden, who said the speaker rotates between the award recipient and OU-COM every three years, acts as the final authority.

"What determines the rotation, I don't know," said Chip Rogers, director of advocacy for OU-COM. The college only selects the speaker when the administration notifies the college to do so, he said.

The administration told OU-COM Dean Barbara Ross-Lee that it was OU-COM's year to select a speaker, but they chose to defer a year because they could not find a suitable speaker. So, Gary Small, the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award recipient, spoke instead, Rogers said.

This year, OU-COM has selected Norman Gevitz, professor of social medicine, to speak at commencement, Rogers said.

Gevitz will be the third speaker for OU-COM since the alternating schedule began, Rudy said. The first speaker was OU-COM professor and Assistant Dean of Clinical Research John Brose in 1988 and the second was Frank Myers, trustee professor of family medicine, in 1993.

But some feel OU-COM missed its chance to select a speaker and the 1997 Outstanding Graduate Faculty recipient Martin Schwartz should speak at the June 12 ceremony.

When Schwartz won the award at the end of last year, Glidden told Schwartz he would not speak at this year's graduation ceremony because OU-COM would select the speaker.

"I do agree with the proposition that this award should be tied to the keynote address or not (at all)," Schwartz said. "But it should not be taken away on a schedule that we don't even know in advance."

The graduate student commencement is the only way in which the university officially recognizes the graduate faculty award recipient, Schwartz said.

When Schwartz won the award, he received a plaque from the graduate senate.

But the graduate senate thinks the opportunity to speak is an essential part of the award.

"This completely undermines the spirit of the award," said Michael Hunter, the graduate senate's president.

OU-COM only comprises a small percentage of the graduate student body but receives special treatment from the administration, he said.

They have a chance to be represented on the graduate senate and on the selection committee for the Outstanding Graduate Faculty award, but they never have sent a representative, he said.

OU-COM has been invited to participate every year since the award began in the early 1970s, including this year, said Carrie Railing, the graduate senate's vice president.

"Our functioning is being challenged by a subset of the community," Hunter said.

But OU-COM sees the combined graduation ceremony and the alternation of speakers as a good idea, Ross-Lee said.

Many other universities do not combine the ceremonies for graduate and medical programs, let alone rotate speakers, she said.

"I think it's only fair," she said. "This way all programs have some input, both the OU-COM and graduate programs. I can't think of any other way to do it."

But those unfamiliar with the tradition might disagree.

"It does seem to leave some bad feelings for everybody when nobody knows what's going on," said Jenny Nelson, associate professor in the school of telecommunications, who spoke at the ceremony in 1994.

But Irwin Ungar, professor of environmental and plant biology, spoke in 1995 and said the rotation schedule is a reasonable solution because the medical school chooses not to participate in the award nominations.

Despite the arguments about the speaker selection, the tradition remains.

"It's not a matter of taking away (the honor of speaking) from anyone," said Josep Rota, director of the Center for International Studies and 1996 commencement speaker. "We must follow the tradition, and OU-COM is part of that."