When Rudy Giuliani ascends the podium this Sunday on the green campus of Middlebury College, he will be looking out onto what is being called the "Class of 9/11." Middlebury president Ronald D. Liebowitz and the Commencement committee no doubt had this in mind when they decided to pony up Giuliani's six-figure speaking fee.

That Giuliani will address the Class of 9/11 in Vermont seems incongruous only until you remember the dozens of New York City undergrads who transferred to more bucolic environs after the attacks. There will even be a few 9/11 chickens in the Middlebury audience this Sunday. Vermont was a popular 9/12 destination.

More incongruous than the state is the type of institution at which he'll be speaking. Middlebury is a left-leaning liberal arts college in the heart of Howard Dean country. There is no criminal justice program there to correspond with Giuliani's early career interests; nor is there a business school to reflect his current passions. So it isn't surprising that his presence will be met with protests from those who think he was a poor match for the school. As happened when President Bush spoke at Yale, there will be turned backs, walk-outs and perhaps a few brave hecklers interrupting Rudy's tips on how to become a highly effective leader.

As anyone who has read Rudy's book, Leadership, can attest, it doesn't really matter whether the cliché-ridden speech is audible over protests or not. The Class of 9/11 will re-enter the world the same way it left it four years ago: staring at the comb-over of a petty prick who was simply at the right place at the right time and has been on a nonstop bank-run ever since. Don't forget your dog-whistles, class of '05.