To all of the Webster Graduates who are planning a public protest at the 2011 Commencement ceremony:
The majority of what I have heard about this movement comes from Facebook, The Journal, and talk around campus.
My suggestion is this: Think about issues like this that are important to you before the deadline comes to suggest your own commencement speaker, and if you don’t want to actively participate in the nomination or to volunteer for the panel that chooses the speaker, be an adult and deal with the fact that people exist with differing opinions than yours.
I feel like I can safely assume that, had the chosen speaker been someone whose views you fully support, you would still probably drift off during the speech like any other long official monologue you have ever heard in your life; you wouldn’t have made Facebook groups with names like “<insert name here> IS THE COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER AND WE SHOULD ALL SUPPORT HIM/HER!!!!” or have talked about the topic with your friends saying things like “Oh my gosh, I’m so happy that <insert name here> is the commencement speaker, it will make graduation day so much better!”
I don’t think this was a choice in accordance with the general Webster graduate belief system either, but I would never publicly offend the speaker who is only here in response to an invitation to speak coming from Webster University.
If you have a problem with this, Kit Bond is probably not the person to angry at. Also, remember that Webster is the alma mater of a huge variety of students, some of whom may be extremely excited about Kit Bond speaking at their graduation ceremony.
This is an issue that falls into my own personal category of “If you didn’t vote, you have no right to complain about it.”
Kayla Jarnac,
Student
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