Some college students disapprove of the speakers chosen to speak at their graduation ceremonies.
When Wellesley College announced in March that MSNBC host and Tulane University professor Melissa Harris-Perry would be the 2012 commencement speaker, students seemed pleased. Wellesley students have a strong voice in deciding who speaks at graduation, says Kate Leonard, 2012 class president of the women's liberal arts school near Boston.
A committee of students and one administrator first accept suggestions for speakers from all interested Wellesley students via E-mail, says Leonard. Then the committee compiles a list of all the suggestions, and discusses which speakers would best represent the school, and which would feasibly accept Wellesley's invitation. The speaker the committee chooses to invite is always someone initially suggested by at least one student, says Leonard.
Identifying a graduation speaker doesn't go this smoothly at all universities, and the student reaction to the speaker is not always so positive. Some University of North Carolina students are so opposed to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his handling of Occupy Wall Street that a few months after the university's September announcement of him as graduation speaker, they began organizing an alternative commencement.
On May 13, graduating UNC students have the choice to hear from Bloomberg, or attend the alternative ceremony, for which student organizers have secured three different commencement speakers.
"When Carolina invites an active political leader to serve as a commencement speaker, it is always possible that some members of the student body will not endorse that selection," said Ron Strauss, UNC executive vice provost and head of the commencement committee, in an E-mail to the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper.
[Check out an interactive map of this year's graduation speakers.]
Politics are also at the root of student disapproval of the graduation speakers chosen this year by Adrian College in Michigan and Fordham University in New York. Many Adrian students are spreading a petition to stop '50s and '60s singer Pat Boone from speaking at commencement on April 29, citing Boone's "views of racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious intolerance" on their group's Facebook page.
When Fordham, a Jesuit school, announced in March that John Brennan, chief counterterrorism adviser to President Barack Obama, would speak at graduation, many seniors didn't sit well with the decision.
"As a member of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the Bush-era, Brennan has been allegedly associated with prisoner abuse and torture for the 'War on Terror,'" states a Fordham student petition for a new speaker.
When University of Pennsylvania announced social activist and education reformer Geoffrey Canada as this year's commencement speaker, many seniors reacted negatively not because of Canada's political views, but because they hadn't heard of him.
[Learn why pre-law students are less interested in political careers.]
With past Penn graduation speakers such as Denzel Washington and Bloomberg, expectations were high, says Penn senior Brian Goldman, and many students had to search research Canada's name online to learn more about him.
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