UCLA Students Protest Laura Bush
as Commencement Speaker
Students in the University of California/Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies met with Dean Aimee Dorr February 15 to demand that the school cancel its invitation to First Lady Laura Bush to speak at this year’s commencement ceremony.
According to the February 20 Daily Bruin student newspaper, students claimed they had no input in the speaker selection. “She was selected for her political celebrity,” said Tara Wetford, a doctoral student in education. “The commencement speaker should speak to us based on achievements in the field. [Bush] has no merit.”
However, Dorr told the Bruin that Bush’s advocacy for early literacy and her efforts to combine education and librarianship make her a suitable candidate. “Campus has to be a place where people of different views can speak,” she said.
Bush has not yet accepted the offer. “We all see it as a long shot,” Dorr said, adding that four alternate candidates have also been chosen. Her decision was based on discussions with the school’s faculty executive committee, which includes two student representatives.
Posted February 25, 2002.
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