As College Students Prepare To Walk For Graduation, Protests Lead Speakers To Walk Away

[Purveyor]

Forget about their students not making it to graduation. Now colleges have to wonder whether their speakers will.

From former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the head of the International Monetary Fund and the ex-chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, the list of commencement speakers backing out following student and faculty protests continues to grow.

Former UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, a champion of students in the country illegally, had been scheduled to speak at Haverford College's ceremony in the suburbs of Philadelphia, but was opposed over the use of force by university police during the Occupy movement. He backed out of the speech on Monday.

Rice canceled her speech at Rutgers University earlier this month and International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde pulled out of the Smith College Commencement, also on Monday.

more...

http://www.newser.com/article/2ec82bf044e44207abc9b6f85608eca9/as-college-students-prepare-to-walk-for-graduation-protests-lead-speakers-to-walk-away.html

[frazzled]

1. I have mixed feelings about this

I certainly wouldn't want to have to listen to Condi Rice speaking at my kids' graduation, but it does seem to be getting a bit out of hand with a number of the others, and I worry about disagreement turning into something more like intolerance and censorship. Like our moms used to tell us: sticks and stones can break our bones, but words really shouldn't be able to hurt us. Especially if we are educated. I don't want to see a generation of students who only want to hear what they want to hear. Back in my day, who even went to graduation anyway? (I surely didn't.)

The NYT wrote about this today, too:

Such reversals, whether initiated by the school or the speaker, were once rare, but have become more common in the last few years.

Campus activists on the left have long objected to appearances by more conservative figures like Ms. Rice, though usually the events proceeded despite the protests. What is far more unusual is to see them block appearances by figures like Ms. Lagarde, a trailblazing woman usually seen as a centrist, who faced criticism over I.M.F. policies toward poor nations that predated her tenure; or Mr. Birgeneau, who was known for liberal policies toward students who were gay or not authorized to be in the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/education/in-season-of-protest-haverford-speaker-is-latest-to-bow-out.html?ref=us&_r=0

I don't know if I should blame the students for being too iconoclastic or the speakers for being too cowardly to just show up and face the turned backs or the occasional jeer. Or if it's just fine to only want to hear from those with whom you're 100% copasetic. I don't know. It's just all kind of weird.