From mom's relentless nagging to professors' sometimes monontonous harping, lectures are nothing new for this year's graduating seniors.

On June 9, many of these students will gather in Husky Stadium to hear words of wisdom from one final orator.

This week, after scrambling to find a replacement commencement speaker, the UW announced that Washington Rep. Norm Dicks (D-6th) has been chosen to give this year's graduating class a farewell speech.

Norm Arkans, director of media relations and communications at the UW, chairs the committee that consists of faculty, students and staff in charge of finding a commencement speaker.

"[In the fall] we come up with a short list of folks that we, as a group, would like to pursue to see if we can get them to be our commencement speaker," Arkans said.

Another speaker, whom UW officials wouldn't name, was lined up to give the commencement speech, but that candidate had to decline the invitation due to a scheduling conflict.

"It's really a question of availability and not a question of who's top choice, who's second choice or who's third choice," Arkans said. "You have to do that in a sequential basis, not a simultaneous basis."

This was a problem for one candidate.

"One of the folks we were interested in — and who had some interest in doing it — it turns out ultimately the schedule wouldn't [allow] that to happen," Arkans said. "Then we began to engage conversations with other folks."

As various options ran dry late last week, President Mark Emmert turned to Dicks, who was helping the UW to secure a speaker, asking him to be this year's speaker in a phone call.

"He was not one of the folks that the committee identified last fall," Arkans said. "We invited Congressman Dicks basically on that fact that we knew him and he had been helping with our efforts to approach another person."

Since 1977, Dicks has represented the 6th Congressional District, including his hometown of Bremerton, as well as Tacoma and most of the Olympic Peninsula.

Arkans said budget does affect who the UW considers for commencement speaker.

"There are some folks out there who are popular, that people are interested in, who garner six-figure amounts of money for speaking engagements," Arkans said. "They're obviously way off the charts for us; we're not prepared to do that."

Arkans also said the speaker's floor time at graduation, which an estimated 4,500 students and 35,000 guests are expected to attend, plays a role in use of funding.

"The commencement speech is 15 to 20 minutes of the ceremony," Arkans said. "We think exorbitant amounts of money are really not well expended on this occasion."

Dicks told The Seattle Times that he would personally accept the $10,000 honorarium that is usually paid to the commencement speaker and would look into donating it back to a UW program if House ethics rules allowed for such a thing.

Dicks may not muster the same buzz that previous speakers have, but, sometimes homegrown is better, ASUW President Cullen White said.

"He's a Husky alum who is working hard for our state," White said in an e-mail. "I feel like a lot of times, it's more important to have somebody come speak to you from your own backyard because it's easier to relate to them."

White maintains a positive outlook on the upcoming commencement speech.

"It's definitely not a letdown," he said. "Big names don't always guarantee big speeches. I've had the opportunity to hear Rep. Dicks speak before, and I'm confident that he'll deliver an effective speech."

Reach reporter Shaun Moore at news@thedaily.washington.edu.