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Top National Universities Lean Left for Commencement Remarks

Ariel Cohen Contributor
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In an era when selecting a graduation speaker has become an increasingly politicized decision, it should come as no surprise that American universities lean left.

Of the top forty national Universities, as ranked by US News, nearly half choose speakers with overt political leanings—whether a politician, a political talk show host, or a journalist. All of these politicized individuals identify as liberal or progressive.

Those addressing the Class of 2014 include Al Gore, John Kerry, Michael Bloomberg and Nancy Pelosi, among others.

Some highly ranked colleges and universities choose to completely circumnavigate this dilemma by selecting musicians, screenwriters, businessmen or military heroes as speakers. Yet not a single college chose a Republican politician or conservative figure to deliver commencement remarks to undergraduates.

So far this year, over eleven big name graduation speakers have had withdrawn their invitations to speak at various commencement ceremonies due to student and faculty protest. Speakers such as Condoleezza Rice and Christine Lagarde have both forgone delivering commencement remarks due to pushback from campus communities.