In this hyper-polarized environment, students in the class of 2018 may find themselves without a commencement speaker who has strong views on political or social issues. Many administrators are struggling to identify orators who will be welcomed by the campus community without provoking protests.
Following a year of activism throughout the country, including on some college campuses, this year’s commencement organizers are hoping to have pleasant, uninterrupted ceremonies, despite robust social movements such as Time’s Up and the ongoing anti-Trump demonstrations that have attracted hundreds of thousands of protesters.
In 2017, student protests took place on numerous campuses, including Stony Brook and Cornell in New York State; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; and the University of California, Santa Barbara, according to Democracy Now!
Stony Brook students held marches and demonstrations last spring and fall against the Trump administration’s immigration and DACA policies. Protesters at Cornell, led by the Black Student Union, occupied an administration building in response to racial attacks and harassment of African-Americans. Other campuses saw protests over issues including fossil fuel divestment, tuition costs, Confederate names and appearances by controversial figures, such as the White supremacist Richard Spencer.
Last September, students at Howard, a leading historically Black university, shouted down fired FBI Director James Comey during a convocation address shortly after he was appointed to a one-year residency at the university. Amid chants of “Get out, Jim Comey, you’re not our homie,” Comey plowed through his speech, which reportedly included his approval of student dissent.
So when commencement speakers are being considered, administrators have to take into account the possibility of demonstrations if the speaker’s views or actions are opposed by enough students to mount a protest. In 2016, the Education Advisory Board published an article, “Ideas for Engaging Students in Selecting Commencement Speakers,” which noted, “More and more, colleges are soliciting student input and prioritizing diversity when choosing commencement speakers. Along the way, they are developing and refining processes to ensure speakers are entertaining, engaging and appropriate.”
Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Dillard University in New Orleans, is one administrator who has sought student input for some time. “Students are a very important part of the process,” Kimbrough tells Diverse in a phone interview. “We work together, which I think is the way to do it.”
