Days after University of Baltimore (UB) president Kurt L. Schmoke announced that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos would serve as the school’s fall commencement speaker, thousands of students, several local representatives and UB alumni have expressed resistance and opposition.
By Monday afternoon, dozens of students walked out of classes in scheduled protests, and a campus-wide petition asking for DeVos’ invitation to be rescinded reached nearly 3,000 signatures.
“This decision was not made in any way by the faculty, student government, or the student body as a whole,” the online petition says. “This is unacceptable. This is not what UB students want. The overwhelming majority of UB students and alumni, as well as the Baltimore community in general are appalled at this decision.”
Mariame Dangnokho, UB’s Student Government Association president, expressed agreement with the online petition stating that students should be involved in the decision process for selecting a commencement speaker. “The SGA stands in support of our students in asking that Secretary DeVos’s invitation is rescinded,” the statement said. “We demand that the graduating class of 2017, and those thereafter, have a voice in who is selected as their Commencement speaker.”
Keanuu Smith-Brown, vice president of the SGA, and other students said they felt that the education secretary’s stance on education-related issues contradicts the students’ and the university’s beliefs and values. “We have to stand up to that, not back down to it,” Smith-Brown said.
Some students participated in a “class walkout” and others took to social media sites such as Twitter to express their grievances and began using the hashtag, “#NeverBetsy.” A second protest, a rally at Gordon Plaza, attracted students who said DeVos’ support of school choice, and other controversial education policies, made her an unfit candidate for a commencement speaker.
Among those who do not want the education secretary to speak is Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidates Alec Ross, and former NAACP president Ben Jealous. Both candidates spoke out against DeVos’ selection as graduation speaker at the rally.
