This letter is not so much a response to Jeremy Piven’s last minute cancellation, but rather to the Accent Speakers Bureau’s choice in speakers. The fact that $85,000 was going to be spent on a second-rate actor is pathetic.
Worse celebrities have been chosen in the past (Tom Green and Bob Saget for example), and I hope that they were not paid nearly as much as Piven was supposed to be. The students of UF deserve to hear speakers who are relevant to their lives and their educations.
In the past, speakers like Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky came to campus and provided enlightening and provocative commentaries that enriched the minds of attendees. Can we save our money for this sort of speaker instead of no-show HBO stars? If students really want television celebrities then so be it, but do we need to spend more than $80,000 on a speaker? Maybe I should have majored in theater (like Piven).
