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COMMENCE-DEBATE May-18-2006 (840 words) Backgrounder. xxxn
Commencement conundrum: Choosing speakers who won't offend anyone
By Carol Zimmermann
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It happens like clockwork. Every spring, highly touted college graduation speeches are either soon forgotten or they stir debate long before they're given.
This commencement season has been no exception as faculty, students and outside groups have disputed the choice of speakers at a handful of college campuses.
At Jesuit-run Boston College, a group of faculty members was disappointed that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to receive an honorary degree and deliver the May 22 commencement address. The group said honoring Rice could be seen as school endorsement for U.S. involvement in the Iraq War.
Faculty members were divided on the issue. Some felt Rice's career made her worthy of the honorary degree and simply giving it should not be interpreted as a sign of support for Bush administration policies.
Secular colleges also had disputes about selected speakers. Faculty members and students at two New York universities, Columbia University and the New School, protested the scheduled May 20 and 21 graduation speeches of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., finding fault with his support for the Iraq War and views that many found too conservative.
In Colorado, the Metropolitan State College of Denver stirred some negative faculty reaction by choosing former Interior Secretary Gale Norton as commencement speaker. Norton resigned in March and the department she headed for five years has been tied to a lobbying scandal over Indian gaming licenses.
Each year, the Cardinal Newman Society, an organization that promotes Catholic identity at Catholic colleges, distributes a list of objectionable speakers at Catholic college commencement ceremonies, primarily based on the speakers' stance on abortion and dissent from church teaching. According to the group's press release this spring, they disapproved of 10 scheduled speakers this year. In previous years, that number has been closer to 20.
This year, the group found fault with Rice delivering the commencement address at Boston College, saying that she has described herself as "mildly pro-choice."
Another speaker on the group's list this year was Ireland's president, Mary McAleese, the May 21 commencement speaker at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. The group noted that McAleese is a "practicing Catholic who has opposed abortion, in vitro fertilization, divorce and contraception," but also pointed out that prior to her election as president in 1997 she was a "vocal dissident from the church's infallible teaching on the male priesthood."
Richard Yanikoski, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, told Catholic News Service that the issues surrounding honorary degree distribution and graduation speaker selection are complex.
He pointed out that those who make these decisions should not select someone who is "truly defiant" of church teaching, citing the U.S. bishops' 2004 statement that says "Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles."
Yanikoski also said the selection process, which varies at each university, should "reflect a thoughtful process" among the school's president, board members and faculty members. He suggested that schools develop an "out clause" that allows them to deny an honorary degree or change their mind about a speaker long before the speaker has been announced to the public.
As a former college president, he also acknowledged the difficulty in getting the right speaker to bring attention to the school without drawing negative publicity.
When college campuses invite high-profile people, he said, "almost everyone will offend someone."
"We are a divided society," both politically and within the church, he said, so when someone is invited from the public domain, "groups will find this person routinely or sporadically on the opposite side of their fence."
Jesuit Father Charles Currie, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, said controversies surrounding graduation speakers should be seen as "a good teaching moment for the university."
"In our polarized society, universities need to teach people how to disagree and still speak to one another," a dialogue which he said was evident in this year's protest over Rice at Boston College.
But a down side of all the focus on the right speaker, according to Yanikoski, is that it "skews the dialogue about Catholic higher education" so that people think the colleges "must not know what they're doing," when in fact the choice of a graduation speaker is a "small fraction of the entire body of work" Catholic higher education carries out.
One way to avoid a debate is simply to choose someone who won't raise any red flags.
"Quite frankly, some of the big-name people don't deliver the best addresses," Holy Cross Father Thomas O'Hara, president of King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., told The Times Leader daily newspaper.
"If they are nationally or internationally famous, well then that's wonderful. It's more important for us to have someone who makes sense. I want someone who will say something significant to the graduates," he said.
And when the caps and gowns are put away, another side of the graduation speech unfolds. As Father Currie noted: "Who really remembers what these folks say?"
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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