UCLA Students Say No to
James Franco

Milk star James Franco has been selected as the speaker for the upcoming College of Letters and Sciences commencement ceremony at the University of California, Los Angeles. But some UCLA students think the 30-year-old actor is not qualified to offer advice to graduates entering the real world.

Neal Broverman

Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.

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Neal Broverman

March 19 2009 12:00 AM EST

November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST

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Milk star James Franco has been selected as the speaker for the upcoming College of Letters and Sciences commencement ceremony at the University of California, Los Angeles. But some UCLA students think the 30-year-old actor is not qualified to offer advice to graduates entering the real world.

Franco received an undergraduate degree in English from UCLA in 2008, and is now studying filmmaking at Columbia University in New York, where a photographer recently caught him sleeping during a lecture.

But it's his youth and the fact that he only received his bachelor's degree last year that has upset the UCLA students, who have launched the Facebook group "UCLA Students Against James Franco as Commencement Speaker."

The group, boasting 270 members at press time, states, "Clearly, this is ridiculous. Anyone who has been in his classes knows he is an average student." They also say Franco lacks "the wisdom and perspective such a speaker is meant to provide the graduates."