{"id":3169,"date":"2014-05-04T09:54:53","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T13:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3169"},"modified":"2014-05-04T09:54:53","modified_gmt":"2014-05-04T13:54:53","slug":"higher-learning-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3169","title":{"rendered":"higher learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rice275\"<\/a>On Saturday, former Sec. of State and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice announced she will no longer offer the commencement address for Rutgers University.\u00a0 In a letter to the university\u2019s president, Rice wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cCommencement should be a time of joyous celebration for the graduates and their families.\u00a0 Rutgers’ invitation to me to speak has become a distraction for the university community at this very special time.<\/i><\/p>\n

I am honored to have served my country.\u00a0 I have defended America’s belief in free speech and the exchange of ideas.\u00a0 These values are essential to the health of our democracy.\u00a0 But that is not what is at issue here.\u00a0 As a Professor for thirty years at Stanford University and as it’s former Provost and Chief academic officer, I understand and embrace the purpose of the commencement ceremony and I am simply unwilling to detract from it in any way.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

After the school\u2019s Board of Governors invited Rice to speak and award her an honorary degree, several faculty members and students protested, wanting the invitation rescinded because of Rice’s role in the Iraq War.\u00a0 Signs at last week\u2019s student-staged sit-in included:\u00a0 “No honors for war criminals”… “War criminals out”… and “RU 4 Humanity?”<\/i><\/p>\n

Once again members of a place that considers itself an institution of higher learning and academic excellence choose to learn by drowning out contrary opinion.\u00a0 My sense is that these students and faculty believe they are wise and smart and keenly intellectual.\u00a0 They understandably disagree with any involvement in the Iraq War.\u00a0 But let the Intramuralist be clear… agree or disagree; agree or disagree on the legitimacy of America\u2019s stated purpose in Iraq.\u00a0 Such is the valid prerogative for each of us.\u00a0 Saying, however, that a person should be silenced because we passionately disagree with their point of view is an exercise in foolishness… no matter the supposed excellence of any institution.<\/p>\n

Friends, I speak not about the validity of passions regarding the Iraq War; there exist wise people from all parties who feel strongly on all sides of that issue.\u00a0 What concerns me is the growing number of people who feel justified in silencing those they disagree with — and in the case of Condoleezza Rice, acting as if this remarkably accomplished African-American woman is somehow unqualified to speak.<\/p>\n

Note that…<\/p>\n

Rapper Sean \u201cPuff Daddy\u201d Combs will speak at Howard University on May 10th.<\/p>\n

Former MLB manager Tony LaRussa will speak at Washington University on May 16th.<\/p>\n

PBS\u2019s Gwen Ifill will speak at St. Mary\u2019s College on the 17th.<\/p>\n

Bill Nye, the Science Guy, will speak at Umass Lowell.<\/p>\n

Forest Whitaker will speak at Miami University.<\/p>\n

World-renowned chef, Jose Andres, will speak at George Washington University.<\/p>\n

Katie Couric will speak at Trinity College…<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards is scheduled at Barnard College…<\/p>\n

John Legend, Joe Biden, Barack & Michelle Obama, Bill Gates, Brandi Chastains, Diana Nyad… even Peyton Manning and the founder of Chobani Yogurt will be speaking at a college commencement this spring.<\/p>\n

Each of the above has been deemed \u201cqualified,\u201d even though some also have made some very controversial comments and decisions.<\/p>\n

Rutgers\u2019 students and faculty most likely wish to believe they qualify as members of an institution of higher learning and academic excellence.\u00a0 Remember again, though, that wisdom and intelligence are not synonymous, and by drowning out opposing opinion, what they are learning remains in question.<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, former Sec. of State and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice announced she will no longer offer the commencement address for Rutgers University.\u00a0 In a letter to the university\u2019s president, Rice wrote: \u201cCommencement should be a time of joyous celebration for the graduates and their families.\u00a0 Rutgers’ invitation to me to speak has become … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “higher learning”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,425],"class_list":["post-3169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","tag-condoleezza-rice","tag-rutgers-university-commencement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3169"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3172,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3169\/revisions\/3172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}