Barbara Ehrenreich: The Class of ’06

What is spring without the torment of folding chairs and long-winded platitudes involving the future and all the glories it holds? I’ve been to two college commencements in the last few weeks – one where my nephew received his degree in computer networking, and one at which I was given an honorary degree in “humane letters” – and I’ve seen the happy, uplifted young faces as well as those slightly blurred by drink. At UConn-Storrs, where I was honored, graduates enlivened the proceedings by bouncing large blow-up balls around the bleachers, to the consternation of college president, who whispered to me, “This is the problem with having the commencement in the afternoon. Some of these people have been partying for hours.”

There are reasons, whether the graduates know them or not, to want to greet one’s entrance into the work world with an excess of Bud. At one point, back when I got my own real, non-honorary, BA in the sixties, a college degree was a more or less guaranteed ticket to the middle or upper middle class. With that diploma in hand, I could kiss my waitressing days goodbye. Today, no one even thinks of a college grad as being overqualified for tray-carrying. In some urban restaurants, a degree almost seems to be required, if only so you can pronounce the day’s specials.