OPINION: Graduation isn’t YOU, professor, it’s about the students and parents
You know how the big gripe among pro-Hamas activists infesting American campuses the last couple of years is that they’re being “silenced”? That they’re free speech rights are being limited? That college administrators are “oppressing” and cops “brutalizing” them, etc.?
As I noted a year ago, it was hilarious to see college officials and professors trying to deal with the monster they themselves created, especially given their brazen hypocrisy regarding academic freedom and free expression.
These are the same folks, after all, who perpetually whine about microaggressions, create speech codes (aka “language guides”), and make every excuse in the book not to host speakers (usually conservative) who may offend, even slightly, their and students’ sensibilities.
They still haven’t learned.
Speech from the right = Violence
Violence from the left = Speech— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) June 1, 2017
Recently at the small, private West Virginia Wesleyan College, a fine arts instructor (who got her undergrad and graduate degrees from the school) expressed her misgivings that one of the state’s U.S. senators was invited to speak at this year’s commencement.
According to the Times West Virginian, faculty and staff were informed they wouldn’t be told who the commencement speaker was … and if they weren’t happy after the reveal, they were “welcome to not come.”
However, it was leaked online that the speaker was GOP Senator Shelley Moore Capito. WV Wesleyan didn’t “officially” release Capito’s name until the morning of commencement, but noted she had agreed to appear at this year’s ceremony a year ago.
Creative writing teacher Emily Ziebarth, the so-called “rainbow sheep of her family” according to the college’s School for the Arts page, was not pleased. Neither were “a lot of her colleagues” and “several of her students” — they were not “comfortable” Capito would speak to the graduates.
How come? “The Trump administration [i]s openly attacking higher education and education in general,” and Capito “is aligned with [the] administration that is attacking our values.”
For Ziebarth, the situation also was “tragic” given she’s an alumna: “[S]eeing the school cavort with a supporter of a president that is attacking higher education is heartbreaking.”
MORE: Leftist U. Alabama students whine about coming Trump commencement appearance
In what was no doubt in her mind a brave “rebellion,” as Capito took the podium Ziebarth donned “dark rainbow sunglasses” which “displayed a love thy neighbor flag” … along with some headphones.
“Democracy, in general, that seems to be disappearing rapidly,” Ziebarth (pictured) said, “and so it’s a really strange choice to bring a speaker like that there.”
For its part, the Times West Virginian does its best to back up Ziebarth, noting “Republican elected officials have faced constituent anger at town halls across the country,” and that a “nationwide protest movement has developed” against the Trump administration.
Of course, however, most of that “anger” and “protest” come mostly from Democrats and never-Trumpers, some of whom are accused of being paid to show up at town halls to wreak havoc.
I get that WV Wesleyan is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and mentions “service” and “social justice” on its website, but from what I found it appears the student body is pretty ideologically balanced (an admittedly small survey at Niche.com shows a majority of conservatives and moderates), and the faculty and staff don’t seem overtly political.
But ultimately West Virginia a very red state. Donald Trump won it in 2024 with a whopping 70 percent of the vote, and a few years prior Senator Capito beat her Democratic opponent by an even bigger margin.
As such, it seems entirely appropriate for Sen. Capito to address the school’s graduates.
For what it’s worth, when my daughter graduated college the entire stadium had to listen to the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative lecture about how the U.S. “remains a deeply unjust country that has not resolved issues of slavery, racial oppression and white supremacy.” It wasn’t exactly an uplifting, positive message on a celebratory day, but unlike West Virginia, Delaware is a deep-blue state, especially the northernmost county in which U. Delaware is situated. So there you go.
Ms. Ziebarth and others in the granola-munching/tweed jacket-wearing academic set would do well to remember graduations and commencements are not about them. They’re about the students and their parents — those who pay their salaries!
MORE: Democrats outnumber Republicans as commencement speakers – again
IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: Cloud formations all about “me”; Shutterstock.com. INTERIOR IMAGE: wvwcmfa/Instagram
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