Illustration by Lydia Nichols
When the White House announced President Barack Obama would be giving this month’s commencement speech at Joplin High School, a year after the May 22 tornado, at least one Joplin Globe columnist criticized the president for it. Of course, the juncture of politics and “Pomp and Circumstance” is rarely free of controversy. Just consider the past five years.
2011: Fontbonne University rescinded its invitation to philanthropist Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools, “due to allegations that he had fabricated parts of his [first] book and mismanaged his charity,” as reported on the Wall Street Journal’s website.
2010: While some students at SLU protested commencement speaker Pietro Sambi—the late archbishop who’d expressed disapproval of a planned 2005 gay pride parade in Jerusalem—others supported his appearance.
2009: Missouri Baptist University bucked tradition—and eliminated any chance of controversy—by forgoing a commencement speaker. University spokesman Bryce Chapman told the Post-Dispatch, “Adding anything else to an already-packed agenda would unnecessarily prolong the ceremony and distract from its purpose of celebrating our graduates’ milestones.”
2008: Hundreds of students and faculty members turned their backs in protest as conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly accepted an honorary doctorate at Washington University’s commencement ceremony.
2007: Sen. Claire McCaskill was set to speak at her daughter’s graduation ceremony at St. Joseph’s Academy—until the school uninvited McCaskill, around the same time the legislator was campaigning to broaden stem-cell research.
