The Commencement Speech as PR Strategy
What Institutions Really Communicate at Commencement
The Calm After the Protest
The folding chairs were still damp from the night before. The cameras had been set up hours ago. And somewhere backstage, a comms director was whispering to a university president—not about tuition rates or honorary degrees, but about language calibration, audience fragmentation and federal investigations.
The stakes had changed. The speech wasn’t just ceremonial; it was strategic.
When Harvard’s President Alan Garber stepped up to the podium this year, he wasn’t just addressing graduates. He was addressing Congress. The Department of Education. Global media. Donors. Faculty factions. Student protestors. Foreign governments. And above all, perception.
This is what commencement speeches have become: strategic platforms for institutional self-definition, deployed at moments when silence would be interpreted as consent, and improvisation as instability.
It wasn’t always like this. Commencement speeches once lived in a world of platitudes and platonic ideals. Follow your dreams. Fail better. Make your mark.
But in recent years, especially in higher education, these addresses have evolved into sophisticated acts of message calibration. When institutional trust is fragile and every phrase can be clipped, reposted and politicized, a single speech becomes the clearest distillation of a university’s stance.
This year, Harvard used its address to affirm globalism, reaffirm commitments to diversity and defend academic independence, all without ever naming its federal adversaries. The message was clear. The execution was elegant. And the intent was unmistakably strategic.
It’s not just Harvard. Columbia faced accreditation threats amid accusations of antisemitism. Its leadership opted for a more cautious tone, echoing reconciliation and reform. Stanford took a bolder path, positioning student activism as part of its institutional identity. UC Berkeley focused on coalition building. Princeton leaned into tradition and moral grounding. Each made a choice. Each had an audience far beyond the graduates in front of them.
Commencement is a moment of clarity, but it’s also a moment of risk.
Say too little, and you’re accused of cowardice. Say too much, and you’re creating headlines you didn’t want. Just ask any university whose president was interrupted mid-speech, or whose phrasing, no matter how well-vetted, was interpreted as dog whistle or dodge.
It’s not limited to academia. Corporate keynotes now mimic this model. Think Tim Cook at Apple events, or CEOs delivering “state of the company” speeches during earnings calls. These aren’t presentations. They are carefully orchestrated statements designed to shape media cycles, investor trust and public sentiment.
The Opportunity for Comms Teams
Commencement speeches, like corporate summits, are now live case studies in message management. They demand unity across legal, academic and public affairs teams, and contingency messaging in case something goes wrong on stage or off it.
For institutions facing public scrutiny, they’re a chance to reclaim narrative authority. But that’s only possible if teams can coordinate in advance and respond in real time. This is where centralized media coordination becomes essential. You need to know what was said last year, what’s being reported today, and how each stakeholder group might respond tomorrow.
In these high-stakes moments, success depends on more than a well-written speech. It depends on the team’s ability to navigate overlapping messages, past controversies, and live media response. That’s where a system like Broadsight becomes useful. Rather than hunting through old files or inbox threads, teams can quickly access prior statements, align with legal guidance and respond with confidence. It’s less about crafting the perfect sentence, and more about building continuity across every message that came before and every question that might follow.
Why These Speeches Still Matter
In an age of media saturation and institutional skepticism, the podium still matters. Not because people believe in ceremony, but because they believe in signals. A commencement speech isn’t just a celebration of students; it’s a reaffirmation of mission, of credibility, of values under pressure.
Whether you’re standing in Harvard Yard or on a stage at a corporate summit, the requirements are the same: clarity, consistency, and control.
Learn how Broadsight can help you bring continuity and consistency to your organization’s messaging. Request a demo today.
Receive our newsletter
Sign up below and we’ll be in touch with monthly updates about Broadsight, along with news and insights to keep you on the cutting edge of communications work in an AI era.
