--- title: Best Ideas: It's Time to Be Done with Commencement Speakers description: Why it's time to get rid of commencement speakers, France's longshot bid for Mideast peace and more. canonical: https://time.com/4326069/its-time-to-be-done-with-commencement-speakers/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-11T16:00:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:00.752Z article:section: Ideas og:title: It's Time to Be Done with Commencement Speakers og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4326069/its-time-to-be-done-with-commencement-speakers/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: It's Time to Be Done with Commencement Speakers twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # It's Time to Be Done with Commencement Speakers by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 11, 2016 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 11, 2016 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**It’s time to get rid of commencement speakers.**](https://medium.com/@Sikka/dear-class-of-2016-58f3ca43f19b#.1etx6axdc) By Madhulika Sikka in Medium **2\.** [**Can France’s longshot bid for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks pay off?**](https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/can-france-make-middle-east-peace-by-daoud-kuttab-2016-05) By Daoud Kuttab at Project Syndicate **3\.** [**Here’s how to bet $1 billion on economic opportunity for Americans — and get a massive return.**](http://www.bridgespan.org/Philanthropy-Advice/Setting-Strategy/Billion-Dollar-Bets-for-Economic-Opportunity.aspx) By Debby Bielak, Devin Murphy, and Jim Shelton at Bridgespan Group **4\.** [**The sharing economy could radically change the business of fertility.**](http://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11348726/embryo-sharing-donation) By Eliza Barclay in Vox **5\.** [**Everybody loves urban farms. Can they actually feed enough people?**](http://civileats.com/2016/05/09/can-urban-farms-be-more-than-community-hubs/) By Jodi Helmer in Civil Eats  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4326069/its-time-to-be-done-with-commencement-speakers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4326069/its-time-to-be-done-with-commencement-speakers/"},"headline":"It's Time to Be Done with Commencement Speakers","datePublished":"2016-05-11T16:00:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:00.752Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4326069/its-time-to-be-done-with-commencement-speakers/","keywords":["Innovation","France","fertility","graduation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4326069/its-time-to-be-done-with-commencement-speakers/","name":"It's Time to Be Done with Commencement Speakers"}}]}] ```