{"id":80112,"date":"2014-11-24T15:42:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T15:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=80112"},"modified":"2014-12-01T16:23:38","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T16:23:38","slug":"from-the-archives-director-mike-nichols-speaks-to-class-of-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/from-the-archives-director-mike-nichols-speaks-to-class-of-1972\/","title":{"rendered":"From the archives: Director Mike Nichols speaks to Class of 1972"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;This is the first graduation I&#8217;ve ever attended,&#8221; director Mike Nichols began his commencement address to the Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ Class of 1972. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know much about graduations except what I&#8217;ve seen in the movies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nichols &#8212; \u00a0the Emmy-, Grammy-, Oscar-, and Tony Award-winning director, writer, and actor &#8212; died on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at the age of 83. At the 1972 ceremony, Nichols received an honorary doctor of letters degree. By 1972, Nichols had directed <em>Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Who&#8217;s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Graduate, Catch-22,<\/em> and <em>Carnal Knowledge<\/em>. Nichols went on to direct such films as <em>Heartburn, Working Girl, Silkwood, Postcards from the Edge, The Birdcage,<\/em> and <em>Charlie Wilson&#8217;s War.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-80112-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/mike-nichols-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/mike-nichols-1.mp3\">https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/mike-nichols-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n<p><em>LISTEN: Mike Nichols on his history with graduation ceremonies.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-80112-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/mike-nichols-2.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/mike-nichols-2.mp3\">https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/mike-nichols-2.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n<p><em>LISTEN: Mike Nichols on the value of NOT having an opinion.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In his speech, Nichols told\u00a0the graduates, &#8220;I would counsel you against opinion. I find that world is riddled with opinion. &#8230; Somebody interviewed me once and said, &#8216;What do you think of Marshall McLuhan?&#8217; and I was surprised and not displeased to discover that I had no thoughts at all. &#8230; That&#8217;s OK. There are many useful things in discarding opinion, at least part of the time, to see what happens to you. To just hang out and see what happens, and at least going by my experience, things get better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know much about graduations except what I&#8217;ve seen in the movies,&#8221; joked director Mike Nichols after received an honorary doctor of letters degree from the University in 1972. The award-winning director of <em>The Graduate<\/em> and many other films and plays died on Wednesday, November 19, at the age of 83. Listen to his 1972 Rochester commencement address. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1372,"featured_media":80142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[4536,23482],"class_list":["post-80112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture","tag-commencement","tag-university-archives"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From the archives: Director Mike Nichols speaks to Class of 1972<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/from-the-archives-director-mike-nichols-speaks-to-class-of-1972\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the archives: Director Mike Nichols speaks to Class of 1972\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;I don&#039;t know much about graduations except what I&#039;ve seen in the movies,&quot; joked director Mike Nichols after received an honorary doctor of letters degree from the University in 1972. 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