Archived Edition: May 09, 2007 | Back to Current	Sep 10, 2010

Katie Couric on the record
Andrea Park - Executive Editor

By ANDREA PARK

FEATURES EDITOR



Katie Couric will be sharing her pearls of wisdom at this year’s Commencement, but don’t believe the rumors – she is not speaking at this year’s graduation because of her alum boyfriend, Brooks Perlin ’96. “He has nothing to do with it,” she said. “No, I agreed to this two years ago. He doesn’t wield that much influence, tell them.” But Couric does have personal ties to the College, albeit less sensational ones. “My sister [Clara Couric Batchelor] spent her junior year at Williams and my brother-in-law [James P. Batchelor ’72] went to Williams,” she said. “Williams was actually my safety school … I’m kidding. That’s a joke.” Couric explained that she had been asked to speak at Commencement two years ago, but rescheduled for 2007 because of prior commitments. “I’m really very, very honored because I know what a fine school Williams is and what a beautiful place Williamstown is.”

But she still remained mum about her much-younger boyfriend. “I thought this was the Williams school newspaper not the National Enquirer,” Couric said. “Honey, I am not going to get into all this stuff, it’s not something I’m talking about. Thank you for asking, I appreciate your chutzpah.” She may be America’s sweetheart, but Couric is no pushover.

This resilience may be the secret to her success, along with persistence and passion – three key qualities she will be talking about in her Commencement speech. “I’m going to focus on the qualities that I think have served me and other people around me well – persistence, resilience and passion,” she said. “I think I’ll also be talking about the definition of success and what that means, because I think society’s definition and the true definition are not always compatible.” Not that she completely credits her own success to these three ideas – “[It took] a lot of luck,” Couric said.

Her good luck and hard work have indeed given her plenty of experiences to talk about. “I think I’ve observed and learned things along the way that I hope will be helpful, instructive and possibly even inspiring for college students,” Couric said. Although she didn’t give away her speech, Couric did discuss what she believes is most important for college students to consider and offered a piece of advice. “Oftentimes people who are … willing to skip the keg party in order to show their dedication at work really catch the attention of their superiors,” she said. “You should make time for yourself and have fun, but at this age you have very few family responsibilities and it’s a good time to really focus on work and go the extra mile.”

Couric knows about sacrifice – she worked as a desk assistant at ABC News in Washington, D.C., where her main responsibilities were “making coffee, Xeroxing and answering the phone.” She said, “I thought my life was over, it was so depressing … but I stuck with it and persevered, and then I went to work at CNN where I had much bigger responsibilities.”

Although Couric is a long way from her modest beginnings, life is anything but easy. She said no day is typical for her, but everyday is consistently busy with her career as an anchorwoman and as a single mom. “Sometimes I feel that I’m not doing either job well, but I try to do my best,” Couric said. “I try not to be too self-critical.”

After all, Couric receives plenty of outside criticism, especially since her move from The Today Show to become the first solo evening anchorwoman at CBS Evening News. “Being the first one, I’ve probably received more scrutiny than my male counterparts,” she said. “While Charlie Gibson and I both worked at a morning show … that hasn’t seemed to affect the way some people view him, and … a few people have attempted to minimize my journalistic background because I worked on a morning show.” But Couric said that she is far too occupied with her family and her job to mull over such statements and dismissed critics. “It often says more about the writer than it does about the subject,” she said.

Despite her struggles in the industry as a pioneering woman constantly in the public eye, Couric said that the “positive far outweighs the negative.” At CBS, Couric cites her ability to do more serious pieces as a benefit of her new job, and seems to appreciate the change in her life. Her happiness is reflected in her own advice. “The worst thing you could do is to be in a job that doesn’t excite you, that you’re not dying to go to in the morning, that [doesn’t] tap into what you love,” she said.