Speaking truth to power:
In a surprising move, a commencement speaker at Haverford College on Sunday used the celebratory occasion to deliver a sharp rebuke to students who had mounted a campaign against another speaker who had been scheduled to appear but withdrew amid the controversy.
This, in particular, must have been mortifying:
[Replacement speaker William G.] Bowen also took aim at one of the student leaders of the protests, graduating senior Michael Rushmore, who called [originally scheduled speaker Robert J.] Birgeneau’s withdrawal from commencement “a minor victory.”
“It represents nothing of the kind,” Bowen asserted. “In keeping with the views of many others in higher education, I regard this outcome as a defeat, pure and simple, for Haverford – no victory for anyone who believes, as I think most of us do, in both openness to many points of view and mutual respect.”
I mean, imagine that you’re this kid’s parents. You’ve got him all the way through school, probably cosigned a loan, certainly have been looking forward to this day… and then the commencement speaker calls out your son as being a disrespectful, close-minded so-and-so. Even if you’re the sort of good progressive who thinks that speech codes are great if you’re writing them, it’s still going to be socially awkward…
Via AoSHQ.
Well, to be fair he didn’t call out all of Haverford. Just the malcontents and implicitly, their enablers in the administration.
I’m sure he like the other students just fine.