The commencement fiasco emails Ohio State didn't want you to see
The Rooster sued Ohio State in the Court of Claims and won. Here's what we found.
Max Littman, special investigator for The Rooster, sparked an international saga last year with a dispatched entitled, “Inside the Worst Commencement Speech in Ohio State History.”
That dispatch, which was our most popular story of 2024, detailed the “unorthodox” commencement speech of Chris Pan, an Ohio State alumnus who got rich as an early employee for Facebook.
Pan used the occasion to preach about Bitcoin, a fake internet nerd currency preferred by cybercriminals, and Ayahuasca, a psychedelic elixir of South American origin.
As The Rooster reported in ensuing dispatches, it became hard to blame Pan for the debacle. Pan made his desire for a non-traditional speech clear from the beginning.
He did make good on his promise to provide free inspirational bracelets to graduates who requested them, too. He’s a well-meaning guy.
The bigger and much more interesting question became how, exactly, Pan got offered the invite in the first place.
According to one source, who spoke to The Rooster on a condition of anonymity to prevent retaliation from the university, Pan wasn’t on the list of 79 names that the Commencement Speaker Advisory Committee submitted to the president’s office.
In search of that answer, Special Investigator Littman filed an open records request with the university on May 6th, a mere 12 hours after the speech went viral for all the wrong reasons.
Ohio State stonewalled that request for over six months until The Rooster sued the university in late December to proffer the related records.
With a special master appointed and party filings looming next week, Ohio State threw in the towel on Wednesday and supplied the pertinent records while also agreeing to reimburse Special Investigator Littman the $25 filing fee.
Below, you can download those files exactly as we received them:
That third document, featuring a 65-page email thread between Pan and various Ohio State officials, is the juiciest part of the document dump. Rooster correspondent Hilltop Husband quipped the chain reads “like direct messages from an emotionally unstable man you accidentally swiped right on.”
The emails do not shed light on the ultimate question about how the President’s Office came to select Pan, even if all 79 names on the Commencement Committee’s list said “thanks, but no thanks.”
However, they made it clear why the university was not in a hurry to provide the supporting documents promptly, as required by state law.
Ohio State, led by senior director of administration and operations Hannah Bechtold and director of commencement and special events Jake Snoble, who no longer appears employed by the university, officially recruited Pan on March 8th, 2024.
After confirming an itinerary and other logistical questions, the chain starts to go awry on April 24th, mere days before the ceremony.
At 9:40 a.m,, Pan, for reasons known only to himself and God, sent an email lamenting a $95 billion foreign aid package to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan:
What did Pan mean by this? It’s hard to say, though one quickly wonders what could have been had Pan fixed America’s foreign policy in his speech rather than delved into pimping cryptocurrency and psychedelics.
Alas, Pan didn’t stop with foreign policy thoughts.
Four hours later, he wanted Snoble, Bechtold and Tracy Struck, program director of the Office of Student Life, to know about an easy cure for depression.
It’s here one starts to sympathize with university officials. It’s one thing to think that curing human depression, a condition that has confounded doctors for generations, is as simple as asking those afflicted with the mental illnesss when they stopped dancing.
It’s another thing entirely to communicate that thought with a quote in an image that looks like it was pulled from the Pinterest of a suburban wine mom.
Bechtold, undoubtedly having some reservations at this point, responded like a stone-cold professional:
Pan, God bless him, continued his unorthodox requests undeterred.
On April 27th, he asked if it would be possible for Ohio State to harness the powers of fireworks or its world-renowned marching band for added flair to his speech:
Pan was dead serious about the request, too.
Sadly, university officials wouldn’t comply with Pan’s request, noting that they couldn’t supply fireworks or make big changes to the ensemble with under a week remaining until the speech.
In an early version of his speech (Pan submitted roughly eight drafts to the university) Pan also planned to remove his shirt while referencing Hamas’ Oct. 7th attack on Israel:
Well, that move would have been phenomenal fodder for the blogs if nothing else.
On April 28th, Pan inquired about the 10-minute restraints university officials had put on his speech.
He submitted an Excel spreadsheet that compared the times of various commencement speeches by Apple founder Steve Jobs, pop icon Taylor Swift, and famous actor Tom Hanks.
Give Pan this much: He was aiming for the stars with his speech.
On April 29th, Pan inquired about adding more meat to his biography to be distributed at commencement.
For additional inspiration, Pan submitted an Instagram post of himself wearing an “I’m a crazy one” shirt. Pan remarked, “Buckeyes are a little nutty, right?”
Again… it’s hard to fault Pan! He knows who he is and made no apologies throughout the process that, in retrospect, ended precisely as it looked it would.
Through that lens, it makes sense why Ohio State officials tried to bury these documents until the moment they were about to lose in court.
It’s not a good look for a university of Ohio State’s burgeoning prestige to be unable to avoid a highly predictable train wreck for what’s supposed to be the most prestigious graduation ceremony on its academic calendar. Especially considering Pan submitted every word of his disasterclass of his speech in advance.
As such, Rooster Worldwide LLC will submit additional record requests to Ohio State later this morning in the hunt for the ultimate answers we seek.
And this time, we expect our beautiful alma mater to behave in accordance with the law.
THOSE WMDs. The state-policeman-turned-propagandist pushing Trump’s extreme border agenda… A pickpocket’s tale… SCOTUS is about to decide if Texas can watch online porn again… The Browns gave Deshaun Watson what he wanted, and now they’re paying the price… Abuse and injury result from Who was the cyber bully harassing Kendra Licari’s teen daughter?
No mention of the suit or the Rooster in the Dispatch article. Gotta go straight to the 🐔 to get the real story.
While Pan was a crazy choice to give the speech, the choice of Robert Finch for my 1970 OSU commencement was equally bad form.We students had just been through several weeks of getting tear gassed and attacked by the state police, campus police, national guard. We showed up with peace signs on our mortar boards and did not give Nixon's HHS director a warm reception. Plenty of booing and hissing. The speech was not memorable. I fell asleep. Some read the newspaper.