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George Washington University announced Wednesday that D.C. Chef José Andrés would deliver the university’s 2014 commencement address. Andrés, who teaches a course at GW, owns popular D.C. restaurants like Jaleo, Zaytinya, and Oyamel—-restaurants that GW students likely flock to when their parents come to town. But still, GW students and alum seemed to have wanted a bigger—-or at least more political—-name.
While there were people on social media who applauded the speaker choice, there were a whole lot of unimpressed students and alumni. Some made solid jokes, some made moderately funny jokes, and no one hid their feelings about their longing for the Bob Dole days.
So last year’s GW commencement speaker was Kerry Washington. And this year’s is some random chef. Not cool.
— Stacia F. (@staciafinger) March 20, 2014
Oh yeah?! Bob Dole was my GWU commencement speaker. Hm. Sigh. MT @GWToday: World-renowned @chefjoseandres 2014 GW commencement speaker
— Sarah Rosenberg (@RoOnDemand) March 20, 2014
Are the #GWU #ClassOf2017 students awful people for wanting Frank Underwood as our commencement speaker in 4 years? Nope. #Spacey2017
— Bo Erickson (@MrBoErickson) March 20, 2014
the problem is that it’s jose andres the guy who was obviously gw’s last resort because if he didn’t agree they’d just fire him
Jose Andres named #GWU commencement speaker. He’ll give 8 separate small speeches, but you’ll somehow still be unsatisfied.
— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) March 19, 2014
— Max Romano (@_maxrom) March 19, 2014
#GW is in #DC and the commencement speaker they chose is Jose Andres – am I missing something?
— Melissa Gapud (@MelissaGapud) March 19, 2014
I gather from Twitter that José Andrés is GW’s Commencement speaker. #hahaha GW clearly just got lazy and said “let’s ask that famous prof.”
— James Ferguson (@JfergusonKG) March 19, 2014
Picking Jose Andres isnt Kosher. Get it? Cuz he’s a chef and we have a large Jewish population here at GW.
— Ben Alden (@BenAlden610) March 19, 2014
Photo by Jessica Sidman.