The graduation address given by Air New Zealand senior manager Vanessa Stoddart at the May 15 ceremony has been criticised by many of those present, with some attendees claiming the speech was more of an Air New Zealand promotion than an inspiration to the graduates.
Stoddart, an Otago law and commerce graduate, imparted various pieces of advice to the graduates of 2011 in an address to about 460 people who had just graduated in commerce, tourism and law at a 3pm capping ceremony at the Dunedin Town Hall on Saturday.
Fifth year student Brooke White said that Stoddart’s speech was “the most uninspiring speech I have ever heard.”
A graduating student based in Auckland, who declined to be named, stated that whilst the speech was at times funny, it had “far too many references to Air New Zealand and the things their staff did or had done. It seemed incongruous for a graduation speech and I am not sure she quite hit the nail on the head.”
Stoddart, Air New Zealand’s people and technical operations group general manager, stated in her speech that she had earlier been responsible for looking after 11,000 Air New Zealand staff and the company's engineering division had also been added more recently. She also told graduates that Air New Zealand received 40,000 C.V.s a year, and that to stand out was difficult.
However, not all attendees thought that the speech was off-topic. A second year BSci student who attended to watch her brother graduate said that criticism of Stoddart was unfair. “She was drawing on her life experiences to give the speech and if many of those experiences involved Air New Zealand or managing people, I don’t see why she shouldn’t tell us about them. I liked it.”
Critic questioned the University about their choice to have Stoddart speak, and how relevant they found the content of her address. A University media spokesperson replied only with “she is an accomplished Otago graduate and that is why we chose her to speak.”
Graduation speech didn’t fly?
