Graduation ceremonies are being disrupted by protests against commencement speakers, writes Jon Marcus
As the commencement season reaches its peak, speakers and honorary degree recipients selected by US universities have prompted protests over issues ranging from the Iraq War to labour disputes and religious rifts.
The otherwise happy occasions, at which degrees are conferred on graduates, were expected to be marred by noisy demonstrations. Some students and faculty members have vowed to turn their backs on controversial speakers.
One adjunct professor of English at Boston College resigned in protest at the conferral this week of an honorary degree on Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, by the Jesuit Catholic university.
In an open letter to the university's president, Steve Almond says it is "reprehensible" that the school would "entrust to Rice the role of moral exemplar".
Dr Almond, an author who has taught writing at the college, said: "I'm heartbroken at the idea that I'm not going to get a chance to teach students at BC, whom I love. And I'll tell you what I love most about them: it's that they're honest and they're honestly in the pursuit of the truth about themselves and the truth about the world.
"I can't in good conscience undertake that academic mission when the institution I'm working for invites an honorary degree recipient who has publicly lied to the American people repeatedly, not once or twice, but outright lied and misrepresented the situation in Iraq and elsewhere over and over."
Several hundred faculty have signed a separate letter protesting against the giving of an honorary degree to Dr Rice, and students and faculty have held a rally.
Graduates at the University of California at Berkeley and their relatives and friends faced an empty stage when their speaker, California State Assembly head Fabian Nunez, refused to cross a picket line protesting against low university wages. Robert J. Birgeneau, the university's chancellor, took the podium instead.
About 1,000 students at the New School, a university in New York City with deep liberal roots, signed a petition protesting against the selection of Republican Senator John McCain as their commencement speaker because of his opposition to abortion and other of his conservative stands.
At Portland State University in Oregon, students objected to the choice of Congressman Peter DeFazio because of his support for a proposal to increase criminal penalties for illegal immigrants and anyone who helps them.
They demanded an alternative ceremony for people who did not want to hear the Congressman speak at the event next month.
At Louisiana State University, students have urged a boycott of the commencement at which Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, was to speak this week.
At Oklahoma State University, President George W. Bush was greeted this month by several hundred demonstrators when he addressed graduates. Most of the protesters were objecting to the war in Iraq.
In Florida, Muslim and some non-Muslim students wrote a letter to the president of Nova Southeastern University to decry the choice of author Salman Rushdie as the commencement speaker.
Jewish groups have objected to the choice of playwright Tony Kushner to receive an honorary degree from Brandeis University, complaining that he is anti-Israel.