He will be joined at the undergraduate degree ceremony by fellow speaker Roy Roberts, who was appointed emergency financial manager of Detroit Public Schools in May by Gov. Rick Snyder.

Albom is scheduled to address graduates at 10 a.m. Dec. 10, and Roberts is expected to speak at the 2 p.m. ceremony.

Roberts and Albom both will receive honorary doctorates from the university.

Social relations and policy senior Kaiti Aprill — who will graduate from James Madison College this semester — said in some years, the university hasn’t placed a great deal of emphasis on speakers for midyear graduation ceremonies.

“The December commencement tends to get overlooked a bit,“ she said. “I hope that Mitch Albom will have interesting and likely inspiring words for our graduating class.”

MSU visiting instructor Joe Grimm — who worked with Albom at the Detroit Free Press — said he thinks Albom will leave MSU graduates with a positive message.

Grimm recalled putting on a writing workshop where Albom addressed participants.

“He gave people good advice about how to succeed,” he said. “I think that’s what people were looking for.”

The university also will host ceremonies for its advanced-degree graduates.

Emilio Moran, the James H. Rudy Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, will speak to MSU’s advanced-degree graduates at 7 p.m. Dec. 9.

MSU alumnus David Arnold — the president of The Asia Foundation — and Margaret Ann Riecker, the president of the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, are slated to receive honorary doctorates at the advanced-degree ceremony.

MSU Provost Kim Wilcox said the group maintains a trend of noted speakers who have visited the university in recent years.

“They continue a tradition of people who are recognized for their success not just locally … but internationally,” he said. “It points to our presence of excellence.”

The honorary degree recipients were selected by a faculty committee organized by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, Wilcox said.

The university’s selection process reflects the diversity of MSU’s faculty and staff, Wilcox said.
“The notion is this: that part of a university is … a breadth of perspective,” he said. “It’s easy to go with a topic, a book, a personality, that’s widely popular but that doesn’t stretch us.”