Students attending this year’s commencement ceremony on May 14 will listen to a different kind of speaker on the occasion of their graduation from USC.

Retiring USC president Steven B. Sample, whose job it has been to choose a speaker for the last 19 years he was in office, took the opportunity to connect with his students for the last time and decided to give this year’s address himself.

In previous years influential and inspiring people from outside the university such as Bill Cosby or Arnold Schwarzenegger, who spoke to students last year, have been chosen.

“It’s kind of fitting that he gives the last address, but I’m also glad it’s not my commencement, it kind of sucks for the graduation class,” said Hayley Fox, a first-year journalism graduate student.

John Lawrence Callaghan, Kinesiology professor and Marshal of USC thinks that most students will be fine with the president’s decision and positively surprised.

“Some may be a little disappointed that they are not getting a celebrity, but Sample has proven over the years that he is a magnificent speaker,” he said.

Callaghan finds it most appropriate that Sample is giving this year’s speech himself.

“He is a celebrity in his own right,” he said.