Alumnus Doug Kass to speak at commencement

Alumnus Doug Kass will speak at this year's commencement ceremony on May 15 at 10 a.m. in McLane Center.

Kass, who graduated from Alfred University in 1971 with majors in philosophy and religion, is an economic columnist and commentator of considerable renown. He has appeared on "Mad Money," "Good Morning America," "The Today Show," "FastMoney," "The Kudlow Report" and "Street Signs." He has also worked at several Wall Street firms in the past. He is a principal writer for TheStreet.com's Real Money blog and has been cited in several notable newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post. He is the founder and current president of Seabreeze Partners Management, Inc.

In an email interview with the Fiat Lux, Kass explained that he received a phone call from President Edmondson requesting a meeting. In this meeting, which took place a month and a half ago at Kass' home in Florida, Edmondson asked Kass to be the commencement speaker. In a university press release, Edmondson said, "With the uncertainty about the future that our graduates will face in today’s economy, we thought Doug Kass would make an ideal speaker.”

Kass confirmed that his major points for his speech are as follows: "to touch on my journey and then make some observations about something I know a little about – what went wrong in our financial system and where we might be going economically in the years ahead."

When asked about returning to his alma mater, Kass admitted that he's looking forward to it as he has not visited since his graduation in 1971. Particularly, he is looking forward to interacting with students and seeing how the university has changed since his departure.

Kass' speech will be part of the overall commencement ceremony, which will also include speeches by the Marlin Miller Outstanding Senior winners Emily Tobin and Thomas Fleming. According to the official press release, the university will be granting five doctoral degrees, 160 master's degrees and 315 baccalaureate degrees on May 15.