On Thursday, April 14, Rutgers president Robert Barchi announced that president Barack Obama will be giving the 2016 Commencement Address in honor of Rutgers 250th anniversary.
This will be a monumental moment for Rutgers and the class of 2016. This is the first time ever that a sitting US president is coming to make a Commencement Address at Rutgers University. I really would hate to have to politicize such a joyful moment for the families and graduates, but I can't help but bring up the underlying double standard here.
Who can forget the protest conducted by liberal students back in 2014 after the university announced that Condoleezza Rice, the former U.S. Secretary of State under president George W. Bush, was giving the Commencement Address? Or how about more recently when journalist Milo Yiannopoulous came to give a simple speech?
Rice and Milo are both conservatives, rare breeds on college campuses in this country. Rice’s invitation was met with protest all over the campus from students and faculty, which eventually caused her to rescind her invitation. But the best reaction by far came from the protesters of Milo, who stood up in the middle of his speech to smear fake blood on their faces. Truthfully, if Donald Trump was president, do you think he would receive any acceptance, let alone an invitation, to speak at this ceremony? I mean, if Rutgers did invite The Donald, then you can expect the Fall 2016 semester to be cancelled because of protests lasting for months (although I would enjoy an extended summer vacation).
As a college conservative, it becomes harder each day to try and work around students and professors who have no tolerance for your ideas. Nonetheless, I know that this experience will only make me and other college conservatives more aware and susceptible to other’s opinions on issues, and it will diminish any fear of disagreement with someone later in life. We shall not be coddled.
I have absolutely no objection to President Obama coming to speak at this year’s Commencement. I do not believe anyone should be stripped of a moment to hear someone so prestigious speak, nor do I think someone should be stripped of his or her right to speak.
With that said, I'm sure you will not see any conservatives protesting president Obama rolling into New Brunswick this May. If anyone dares to protest this, they will be called “racist” and then my tuition will have to pay for “safe spaces” and therapy sessions for people who were “triggered."
In return for conservative acceptance of President Obama speaking at Rutgers, all I ask of the liberal inhabitants on college campuses everywhere is not to protest the next time we wish to have a conservative speaker enlighten us by speaking on campus.