2008 commencement speakers spark fewer protests than in past years

Published: 2008-05-19

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- College graduation speeches are expected to be almost a right of passage for college seniors. Almost equally predictable is the inevitable attention some commencement speakers get well before graduation day, especially when students or activist groups loudly protest their selection. Speakers at non-Catholic colleges this year who garnered pre-speech protest from students included: syndicated television host Jerry Springer at Northwestern University Law School in Chicago; political activist Phyllis Schlafly at Washington University in St. Louis, and Julian Bond, board chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, at George Washington University in Washington. Catholic colleges and universities often come in for their share of criticism, too, with regard to graduation speakers, although the 2008 graduation season seemed to pass with few protests. As of May 16, the Cardinal Newman Society, which monitors speakers on campuses of Catholic colleges and universities, listed just seven schools where it found the speakers and/or honorary-degree recipients objectionable -- primarily for their support for keeping abortion legal. Five years ago, the group found 20 speakers objectionable. In 2005 the organization listed 18, and in 2006 the group disapproved of 10.

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