The possibility of using paid tickets to close the Convocation Committee’s funding gap generated a heated debate during yesterday’s Student Assembly meeting.

The Student Assembly dedicated much of yesterday’s meeting to a discussion about the appropriation of funding — particularly convocation funding for the classes of 2011 and 2012.

“The history of convocation is that we’re a student-run initiative and the administration has made it clear from day one that it is a student responsibility to pick the convocation speaker and finance it,” Heather Levy ’10, class of 2010 convocation chair, told the S.A. yesterday.

To the Editor:

Re: “Obama’s Campaign Manager Set to Speak at Convocation,” News, Feb. 27

Three years ago, as a graduating senior, I had no choice but to walk out of my own Convocation ceremony. The speaker was Martin Luther King III, who, instead of reminding us of his father’s wonderful message of color-blindness (presumably the reason this otherwise unremarkable speaker was selected), used the joyous occasion as an opportunity to promote his narrow, left-wing political agenda. I had not spent four grueling years at Cornell to be rewarded with a speaker who assaulted my core beliefs and those of countless other seniors.

David Plouffe, campaign manager for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, will be this year’s convocation speaker, the Convocation Committee an­nounced at yesterday’s Student Assembly meeting.

Plouffe, whom Obama has referred to as “the unsung hero” of “the best political campaign in the history of the United States of America,” will address this year’s graduating class.

“Our committee sought an individual who has had a profound impact on the society that our class has been prepared to enter,” C.J. Slicklen ’09 stated in an e-mail yesterday. Slicklen is chair of the Convocation Committee and a Sun columnist.

This week we’ve found ourselves in some seriously sticky situations — and, no, we’re not just talking about all the peanut butter that has gone bad. We’re talking about water and Wikipedia both making headlines as students across the spectrum were outspoken about a number of issues, from sustainability to Gaza, making claims both HEROICALLY awesome and VILLAINOUSLY shoddy in substance.

Who is it? Have you found someone yet? When are you going to announce who the Convocation speaker is?

These are the questions that have surrounded me for almost a year during my tenure as the 2009 Convocation chair.

In the bars.

Around Statler.

When I’m standing at the restroom sink in the Straight.

I cannot avoid this constant nagging over the identity of the 2009 Convocation speaker. And it’s getting really annoying.

Well, friends. The time has come and I will be announcing the Convocation speaker in the short term. Long gone will be the days of me trying to spread rumors that the speaker is Kermit the Frog, former disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich or Matthew Fox of Lost. (Columbia actually had Fox two years ago. Boom. Roasted.)