When this writer graduated from college at the University of Iowa, we're pretty sure the commencement address was delivered by a guy who owned a farm. If remembered correctly, we weren't given his name or anything, they just announced "Okay, here's a guy who owns a farm. He's going to talk to you for a minute or something and then we really gotta get this show on the road because we've only got use of the stadium here for another fifteen minutes." Or maybe our memories are just a bit hazy as we're once again shown proof why the Rhode Island School of Design is so much cooler than we'll ever be. That proof is in their commencement and honorary degree announcement:

At Commencement 2008 -- Saturday, May 31-- honorary degrees will be conferred on performance artist Laurie Anderson, who will also deliver the commencement address; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; Pop Art pioneer Ed Ruscha; and art critic Roberta Smith.

We should note that their commencements are open to the public, so if you're looking to see any of those big shots in person, all in one place, here's your chance. We should say that you can also get into U of I's commencements too, but would you really want to? Probably not.