Condoleezza Rice at Rutgers. Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Brandeis. Robert Birgeneau at Haverford. These are just a few of the college commencement speakers who have been dropped or stepped down from giving speeches this year in the face of student protests. Critics say the cancellations amount to a threat to the speakers’ free speech, while students defend their right to make their own views heard.
Pomp and Controversy: Graduation Speeches Cancelled Amid Student Protests
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Guests:
Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and author of "Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate"
Elias Isquith, assistant politics editor at Salon.com
Sonia Jacob, recent graduate of UC Hastings College of the Law who was active in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent UC president and former Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano from speaking at her graduation
Ian Gavigan, recent graduate of Haverford College who protested against commencement speaker Robert Birgeneau, former chancellor of UC Berkeley
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