If anyone interferes with President Joe Biden’s commencement speech at Morehouse College on Sunday in Atlanta, all ceremonies will be canceled “on the spot,” David A. Thomas, college president, told CNN Thursday.
Thomas said the school will not allow “disruptive behavior that prevents the ceremony or services from proceeding in a manner that those in attendance can partake and enjoy.”
Commencement ceremonies at colleges and universities across the country have been interrupted or modified in recent weeks, prompting schools to move celebrations off campus over student-led protests in response to the Israel-Hamas war, according to USA TODAY.
Ceremonies will be “ceased” if any disruptive behavior escalates, including any “prolonged shouting down” while the president speaks. Thomas said he also won’t allow police to remove students from the ceremony in zip ties. “I will cease the ceremonies on the spot If we were to reach that position,” he said.
“I would rather be the first president to have a failed commencement than to say you are less important than the ceremonies of this institution,” Thomas told CNN.
College can ‘hold tensions,’ only allowing silent protests
The only thing Thomas will not stand for on commencement day, or any other day is the demonstration of “hate speech,” calling for violence against another group or individuals, he shared.
Morehouse College is a place that “can hold” tensions. Thomas said the school is a place that can support different points of view and schools of thought.
“We need someplace in this country that can hold the tensions that threaten to divide us … We look around some of the most venerable institutions of higher education have canceled commencement, canceled valedictorian speakers because of their having spoken out and exercised their rights to free speech,” Thomas told CNN.
Which is why Morehouse College will allow students to protest. Silently.
“As long as you don’t conduct yourselves in a way that deprives others from being able to participate, consume and celebrate this moment,” Thomas told CNN. “You want to walk across the stage in a piece of garment that identifies your moral connection to either side of this conflict because we also have Jewish students here, you can do that.”
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