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<p>Wrong on so many levels.</p>
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<li><p>By tradition, Haverford doesn’t have a traditional commencement speaker. The Presidents of Haverford College and its sister institution, Bryn Mawr College, give short speeches. The college then awards honorary degrees to 1 to 4 distinguished persons; each of them has about 5 minutes to give a brief acceptance speech, the academic equivalent of an Oscar acceptance speech. Robert Birgeneau, former Chancellor at UC Berkeley, was one of 4 persons invited to receive honorary degrees this year, but he declined the invitation after 40-some students and 3 faculty members (the latter all UC Berkeley alums) raised objections based on an incident involving alleged excessive use of force by campus police against student protesters during Birgeneau’s tenure as chancellor, allegedly in response to instructions from Birgeneau to clear the protesters from the campus. The Haverford protesters weren’t objecting to Birgeneau speaking; their argument was simply that it was inappropriate for their college, a historically Quaker college committed to traditional Quaker values of non-violence, free speech, and peaceful dissent, to honor the head of an institution which had used police violence to forcefully remove peaceful protesters on his watch. The leaders of the protesting group made it abundantly clear that they would welcome Birgeneau’s presence on campus at any time to engage in genuine dialog about appropriate college and university policies concerning peaceful, but nonetheless disruptive, campus protests; they just didn’t think their college should award him an honorary degree.</p></li>
<li><p>Bowen was not Birgeneau’s “replacement.” Bowen was one of the 4 original honorary degree recipients, a group that was reduced to 3 when Birgeneau withdrew.</p></li>
<li><p>Bowen’s remarks drew an enthusiastic standing ovation from a small fraction of those in attendance. From my vantage point, sitting about 4 rows back, it looked like maybe 10% of those in attendance (apart from graduating students and faculty) gave Bowen a standing ovation. Most applauded tepidly; some (perhaps as many as gave the standing O) didn’t applaud at all. None of the graduating students and none of the faculty stood and applauded. Many, including myself, thought Bowen’s remarks demeaning, belittling, and thoroughly inappropriate at commencement exercises that are supposed to be a celebratory event, recognizing the accomplishments of all the graduating seniors–not an occasion for a speaker to abuse the privilege of the podium to take potshots at some members of a captive audience who have no opportunity to respond. It was especially inappropriate insofar as Bowen was the last speaker for the day, so that his remarks put a damper on the otherwise celebratory spirit of the event.</p></li>
<li><p>I think it’s irresponsible to say that “the rest of the student body was not behind” the Haverford protesters. I don’t think anyone knows that. Only 40-some students signed on to a letter that some of the protesters sent to Birgeneau which appears to have triggered his withdrawal, but well over 100 came to a campus-wide forum on the matter, a very large turnout for such a small campus. Many students, like my daughter, shared the view that it was inappropriate for Haverford to honor Birgeneau with an honorary degree, but declined to sign onto the letter because they didn’t agree with its confrontational tone. Many would have joined a silent but visible protest that some student leaders (including some who did not sign onto the letter) were planning, had Birgeneau showed up. And virtually all of the classmates with whom my daughter has since been in communication via social media thought Bowen’s remarks were out-of-bounds, whether they agreed with the protesters or not.</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t blame you for all the misinformation you managed to communicate in three short sentences. Almost every “fact” about the Haverford commencement reported in the news media and repeated in editorial commentary has been either wrong, wildly exaggerated, or simply made up out of thin air. </p></li>
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