Space Technology

By: Shane Saathoff
This past weekend while watching the Michigan vs. Iowa Football game there was a commercial on for one of the Universities that I couldn’t get out of my head, even after the Wolverines’ crushing defeat (and it didn’t help that QB Tate Forcier suffered a concussion either.)

I’m speaking of the recent University of Iowa ads featuring famed broadcaster, Tom Brokaw.  Currently running on a national level, these ads feature the narration skills of the future Hall-of-Fame Broadcaster reciting lines of (Tradition, Respect) same old stuff every other University today does with their commercials to lure unworthy undergraduates and chad-swinging freshman to their schools.

However, when you elect to have a Alumni read something for your institution, you would expect to see a graduation date at the end of the TV ad…or at least the name of the person talking, to gain accreditation for your abilities to get someone to a level of fame (like Brokaw himself).  However, at the end of this ad, there is nothing but “University of Iowa.”  So the question is…why don’t they let people know?

It might be because Mr. Brokaw in fact never graduated from the University of Iowa.  Brokaw himself dropped out after he was unsatisfied with the atmosphere there, saying he majored in “beer and co-eds”. Later, Mr. Brokaw received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of South Dakota in 1964. Besides that, Mr. Brokaw has also been awarded honorary degrees from:

Boston College; Brandeis University, the California Institute of Technology; College of William & Mary; Dartmouth College; Duke University; Emory University; Fairfield University; Fordham University; Florida State University; Johns Hopkins University; Northwestern University; Providence College; Saint Anselm College; University of Notre Dame; University of Oklahoma; University of Pennsylvania; along with Washington University in St. Louis.

Thus, the question I pose to ask is…why University of Iowa?  Why would you have an Alumnus who was unsatisfied with his education at your institution, come back and do a nationally televised commercial?  (Probably because they figured no one would connect the voice to Brokaw and take the time to look it up.) If you knew he was willing to do it…why not give him an honorary degree just for doing that?!?!?  I mean, Emory University gave the man a degree! (And I’m sure it’s a fine school)

So today, I call upon the heads of the University of Iowa to realize exactly what a bad example they have set by having a former dropout lead the way for future students to come to the school and by all guesses, probably major in exactly what Mr. Brokaw did….(“beer and co-eds”)

Nevertheless, there is the result, and I’m sure that when the call actually came from the University of Iowa 46 years after Mr. Brokaw dropped out of the institution, Tom probably dignifiedly just sat back in his chair, recalled his days at the school, took a look at the 19 degrees hanging on his wall, and chuckled.