WHEN THE HARVARD-YALE FOOTBALL GAME was played in Cambridge last fall, Yale students pulled off one of the great college pranks of all time. During the game a fake Harvard pep squad wearing red and white face paint distributed 1,800 pieces of construction paper on seats covering the Harvard side of the stadium. When turned over in unison by the occupants of the seats, they were purportedly to spell out “Go Harvard.” Instead, they spelled out “We suck.” (See the Harvard Sucks website for the back story and multimedia presentations.)

The Columbia Business School MBA recognition ceremony took place at Madison Square Garden on May 15. Those in attendance might have been forgiven for wondering if they were the victims of a similarly inspired prank. The commencement speaker was PepsiCo president and chief financial officer Indra Nooyi. Nooyi’s speech didn’t rise to the level of sophomoric genius achieved by the Yale pranksters, but it was incredibly sophomoric.