Former University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau was scheduled to deliver a commencement address to Haverford College--in what can only be described as one of the more disappointing headlining commencement speakers in 2014. ("Hey, kids! We booked an official from another university to speak to you! And, to up the sexy, they're now unemployed!")
Some students at Haverford weren't too thrilled with the selection of Birgeneau, and not because they were hoping for A-list talent. A small group of Haverford students wrote Birgeneau to complain about his oversight of UC Berkeley during the Occupy Movement, when Birgeneau eventually demanded arrests be made after protesters ignored the co-camping rules of occupying Berkeley campus space. Regardless, some Haverford students found Birgeneau's response to be reprehensible, and demanded he step down as a commencement speaker.
He did.
Birgeneau isn't alone. In 2014, notable commencement speakers like former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, among others, have withdrawn as speakers at graduating ceremonies this year after students at respective colleges protested their involvement.
In case you think this is a matter of politics, of liberal versus conservative beliefs, think again. The Los Angeles Times (of a liberal bent) derided the students who demanded such commencement speakers step down, writing in an editorial:
"Still, the cascade of canceled speeches is worrying for several reasons. First, there is the uncompromising nature of the opposition: the demand that a speaker agree 100% with the protesters. This insistence on doctrinal purity is antithetical to the notion that a university ought to be an environment in which students, far from being protected from opposing views, are challenged to engage with them."
Let's face facts. The real challenge here for students was having to listen to Robert Birgeneau for twenty minutes.
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