A Rose by any other name is ... not acceptable

Editor's note: Listen to the interview with Dean Sue on NPR's "Here and Now." Go to the show's archive for May 13 and then click on the segment titled "Graduation Names."

Quick!

Say the name Suhair Abderrahman Abderrazzaq clearly, confidently and with all the right intonation, as music is playing, people are walking in front of you, thousands are awaiting your words and colleagues are timing you with a stopwatch just for fun.

Can't?

Sue Alexander can. Wheaton's Dean of Students has spent 20 years staring down difficult-to-pronounce student names like this one from the Class of 1988 and getting them right, as the person who announces the hundreds of names of seniors during Commencement. May's ceremony will be her 21st—and her last (she's retiring). As she leaves, she shares the method to the madness of getting all the names right on one of the most important days in the lives of students and their parents. How does she do it?

"Probably more important than how I do it is why I do it," she said. "At my first graduation rehearsal, Class of '88, the student at the beginning of the alphabet was a Palestinian woman with a polysyllabic name. I asked her how she pronounced it. She looked at me unflinchingly and said ‘Suhair Abderrahman Abderrazzaq.’ There was no doubt that she expected me to say it correctly."

And Alexander, who is a talented mimic with a trained ear, did—with practice alone and with the student, and some phonetic notes over her name in the Commencement notebook that the dean has at the podium with her.

"All too often students with names we deem difficult to pronounce either apologize or expect that their names will be butchered by others who claim they can't pronounce them. Names are important!" said Alexander, whose two
Cambodian daughters' names have often been mispronounced. "Names have been chosen with care, bestowed at birth, and carry great meaning for families or illustrate cultural values and identity. It's important to honor those names and to show regard for the individual by taking the time to ask for the pronunciation and learning to say it."

"When students cross the platform at Commencement they're often in such a daze they don't hear their names, but their families certainly do."

Sometimes students ask Alexander not to read middle names they don't like. She usually has a little chat with them about the significance of names, that they have meaning for their families and how the pronunciation of the entire name is "not only proclamation of their achievements but testimony to those who helped them get here."

And besides, she often tells them with a smile, "the ceremony is kind of like a wedding at this point, it's not really for you, it's for your families."
So Alexander focuses hard to do right by students like Kara Heidi Akemi Kogachi '07, Alexander Taoultsides '07, Pujita Vaidya '07 and the rest.

And she practices. During Commencement rehearsal the day before the event, Alexander asks students to say their names the way their families want to hear them. "I ask them to come up and speak with me if anyone has ever mispronounced their names. That usually generates a big line of students who just want to make sure their names are on the list," Alexander said with a laugh. Once she hears the name, she writes it in her own phonetic shorthand and then rewrites them into the official Commencement notebook later in the day (usually surreptitiously during the trustees meeting, ssshh). Late the night before the big event she rehearses by reading the list aloud twice. She reads it again twice the morning of Commencement.

Sometimes it is not the long, complex looking names that are difficult. An Anna could be ann-a or aan-nah. To point out examples, Alexander recently paged through last year's Commencement notebook.

William Anthony Vasiliou '07 is pronounced vasileehoh, she said. Tonia Asare Smith ‘07? Tan eeah eye-yo asa-ray smith.

Pacing is just as important as pronunciation. She keeps things moving at a brisk pace so that all students can ride the wave of applause. She also has to make sure that every name gets the same emphasis, whether or not the student has Latin honors or when several students have the same last name.

"Reading the names seemed like a daunting task in my first year," said Alexander, especially since the first name on the Commencement list was Suhair Abderrahman Abderrazzaq. "It has come to be an opportunity I value—it's my final salute to the wonderful students who have worked so hard and given so much of themselves to Wheaton."