BETWEEN THE LINES

Mister Rogers to visit Old dominion's neighborhood It's probably a safe bet that, 25 years after graduating from college, most people won't remember who spoke at their commencement. With some notable exceptions, of course.

Old Dominion's class of '99 is likely to remember its spring graduation speaker, ABC newsman Sam Donaldson, and the class of '98 will surely have no trouble recalling Bill Cosby, who spoke at Foreman Field the year before. This May, the class of 2000 will hear from yet another notable figure from the world of entertainment and education, Fred McFeely Rogers, or Mister Rogers as he is better known.

Rogers, whose show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" reaches almost 8 million households and child care settings each week, has been a popular commencement speaker in recent years because so many of today's graduates grew up watching him on television. I recently overheard one student tell a classmate that she is happy Rogers is coming to speak at her graduation. After all, she exclaimed, "He taught me how to tie my shoes!"

Rogers, in fact, has offered his young viewers many life lessons down through the years, from such simple instructions on the art of shoe tying to more intangible guidance that children have carried with them into adulthood. Things like self-esteem, discipline and control, and the inherent worth of each individual. His focus has always been on children's emotional development.

(A bonus of his visit, according to John R. Broderick, vice president for institutional advancement, is Rogers has agreed to come at no cost to the university. "We wrote and asked, he called back and said 'Yes.'" )

Fred Rogers has won every major award in the television industry and his show is the longest-running children's program on public television, debuting on PBS in 1968. He holds honorary degrees from more than 32 colleges and universities and will receive another one during his visit to Old Dominion.

Time, of course, is the true test of a graduation speaker's staying power in the recesses of alumni minds. When Old Dominion alum Beth Polson '73 was invited to address her alma mater's graduates in December 1995, the Emmy Award-winning television producer polled her friends and associates to see how many of them remembered their graduation speakers. She found that no one could recall who their speaker was, much less what he or she had to say. Polson decided then and there that her first objective as a graduation speaker would be to be memorable. Time will tell if she succeeded.

While we're on the subject of commencement . . . hold on to that extra large-size diploma - it may be a collector's item one day. Not that you would ever sell yours, of course. But effective with the December '99 commencement, Old Dominion is breaking a longstanding tradition by replacing the 15-by-18-inch diploma with a downsized sheepskin.

The debate began in 1997 when some members of the Student Senate voiced their displeasure with the near poster-size diploma, which Old Dominion had issued since the early 1970s. The Student Senate soon took up the cause, and before long a university committee was established to look into the situation. Size matters, it was decided, and smaller is better.

In addition to its smaller size, the new diploma will be printed in the more traditional horizontal format with centered type, and feature the name of the university in an Old English script. Sounds like a document worthy of the phrase "pomp and circumstance."

Alumni may order a new diploma for $40 (however, please note that the new document will have the signatures of the current university president and Board of Visitors rector). To order, send a check made out to Old Dominion University and include the following information with your request: your name at the time you graduated, graduation month and year, degree earned, Social Security number and daytime phone number. Requests should be mailed to: Registrar's Office, Attn.: Graduation, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va. 23529. Orders will not be taken by phone.

- Steve Daniel, Editor