The president of St. John Fisher College is standing up for free speech, despite professors’ protests to the contrary.
The small college located in Rochester, New York invited former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to deliver the commencement speech. The announcement was met with protests by 49 faculty members urging him to rescind the invitation because they believed Giuliani to be a “highly controversial, divisive ideologue.”
The professors wrote a letter to school President Donald Bain that read:
Many of our graduating seniors signed the Fisher Creed in their very first days on campus during the matriculation ceremony. The first value emphasized on the Creed is respect – for ourselves, for others, and for our community as a whole. Like Fisher’s mission statement, the Creed also commits students to building a community that embraces diversity and responsibility. We believe that by bestowing an honorary degree on Mr. Giuliani, Fisher is in danger of betraying our fundamental campus values. A graduation ceremony should be a moment in which we publicly acknowledge and show respect for all members of our diverse student body and their accompanying families. Regretfully, our speaker selection implies that we do not value all members of the Fisher family equally.”
But Bain flipped the professors’ argument around on them.
The Fisher Creed speaks to these matters:
RESPECT for ourselves; for others, their ideas and beliefs; and for our community as a whole.
OPEN-MINDEDNESS to things that are new, different, and unfamiliar.”
In a big win for academia and free speech, Giuliani will still be speaking at the commencement ceremony.
