Clashing Views
Graduation events reflect concerns about moving forward in an ‘age of rage’
President Eisgruber ’83 titled his Commencement speech “Civil Virtues,” while Baccalaureate speaker George Will *68 decried an “age of rage” as more than 100 seniors stood and turned their backs on him to protest one of his writings. Valedictorian Kate Reed ’19 counseled her classmates to approach what is different or challenging in their worldview “with a desire to understand ... and openness to change.”
Noting how “political contention” had surfaced during the weekend’s Reunions and graduation events, Eisgruber said we live in an “ill-tempered time” in which people “too often prefer to issue provocations or denounce opponents rather than engage in vital civic work required by deliberative processes that are fair and inclusive to multiple interests and points of view.”
Virtues such as civility and truthfulness are not glamorous or exciting, Eisgruber explained in his seven-minute address, but “require us to respect others rather than draw attention to ourselves.” Civil virtues are the “foundation for any democratic society in which people seek to learn from one another and pursue a common good that unites them across differences.”
His remarks followed a month in which supporters of a movement to ban questions about criminal history on application forms interrupted a meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community, and students conducted a nine-day sit-in in front of Nassau Hall to protest the University’s sexual-misconduct policies and procedures.
During the Baccalaureate ceremony in the University Chapel, Will, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and author, said, “The nation is awash in expressions of contempt and condescension. What are called ‘social media’ — and which might more accurately be called ‘anti-social media’ — seem to encourage snarky expressions of disdain.”
The antidote to anger, according to Will, is “intelligent praising ... the virtue of recognizing virtue, and saluting it. ... And developing a talent for admiration is how we become less susceptible to feeling envy, which stokes anger.”
When Will began to speak, more than 100 students stood and faced away from him in a show of dissatisfaction with his views — as expressed in a 2014 Washington Post column he wrote — on sexual misconduct on campuses. The protest was one of several ways in which students kept a focus on Title IX issues over the weekend, including wearing purple clothing and “Listen & Act” buttons. In May, in response to the sit-in, the University authorized an outside review of its Title IX processes and agreed to meet with students over the summer. (See On the Campus, June 5.) Title IX is the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex.
On Monday at Class Day, Eisgruber referenced Will’s speech and added, “I hope, as does he, that your great class will distinguish itself by accepting the responsibility to engage civilly and respectfully even with people whose opinions are very different from your own.”
But, speaking immediately after Eisgruber, class president Chris Umanzor ’19 said he was “miffed” by Will’s address. “For me, some of the starkest takeaways ... were that our generation — even some in our class — are entangled amid a culture of contempt and stubbornly reject or do not relish the base principles of free speech.” Will had ended his talk by thanking all members of the Class of 2019, “including those who have helped, if inadvertently, to illustrate some of my points” — a comment that some students took as a direct swipe at them.
In a speech sprinkled with self-deprecating humor, Class Day speaker Ellie Kemper ’02, an actress, author, and comedienne, said she’s a person who likes to stick to a plan, but life never quite goes according to plan. Relating some of the obstacles she has encountered in her career, she said she realized that “more important than career accomplishments is the ability to help one another.”
“In the age of Instagram, you might sometimes see your classmates as your rivals or your competitors,” said Kemper, who plays the title role in the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. “You might feel pressure to have the best life ever. … But being sensational is not the same thing as being happy. Trust me: I have lived longer than you — not that much longer, I’m still incredibly young — but long enough to know that trying to be a kind, thoughtful, hardworking person will ultimately make you much happier than trying to be an impressive person.
“So, Class of 2019, go be nice to one another!” she said.
The University awarded degrees to 1,282 undergraduates in the Class of 2019 and two from previous classes who completed requirements this year. There were 562 graduate degrees granted, of which 398 were Ph.Ds.
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8 Responses
Micah Herskind ’19
4 Years Ago“A Churlish Protest.” “Rude and Disrespectful.” “A Self-Righteous Exhibition.”
If the responses (Inbox, Sept. 11, and comments at PAW Online) to the overwhelmingly silent and peaceful protest at Baccalaureate (“Clashing Views,” July 10) have made one thing clear, it’s that no form of protest, no signaling of dissatisfaction, no staking of a moral claim, is acceptable. If we disrupt the event, that’s shutting down free speech. If we walk out: a refusal to engage. If we merely turn our backs — making no noise, and not disrupting the speaker’s ability to speak in any way — it’s “churlish” and self-righteous.
It seems that when alumni tell students not to protest a certain way, what they really mean is don’t protest at all. What they mean is don’t think for yourself, don’t let a little thing like moral conviction outweigh a duty to shut up and sit still. To those such as Jack Zimmerman ’48 and Mike Devine ’62: Let us know when you think of an appropriate way to protest. I won’t hold my breath.
Jack Zimmerman ’48
4 Years AgoThis is in response to Micah Herskind ’19’s letter (Inbox, Dec. 4) dealing with the Baccalaureate protest (“Clashing Views,” July 10).
He mentions my letter, which was posted July 11 at PAW Online. In that brief letter I simply observed that students turning their backs was the equivalent of saying “My mind is made up, don’t bother me with facts” — an attitude that no one who had the blessing of a Princeton education should adopt.
Mr. Herskind says that those who criticize the Baccalaureate protest believe that “no form of protest ... is acceptable.” He contends that to censure protest in a certain way is the same as condemning all forms of protest. At the end of his letter, he invites me to “let us know when you can think of an appropriate way to protest.” I hardly have to think at all. For example, I would remind him that Martin Luther King and other civil-rights leaders demonstrated countless effective and appropriate ways to protest.
I wish Mr. Herskind success in his life as a new member of the Princeton alumni community.
Norman Ravitch *62
5 Years AgoNothing is more soporific than commencements, and I include speakers of all sorts from students to school personnel to guest celebrities. An occasional protest at least makes for excitement, but if we also value civility and decorum, protests should only occur when a speaker says or does something outrageous. I once saw a pig brought on stage, but that was funny and even Wm. F. Buckley Jr. laughed.
Students need to learn more than academic subjects; they need to learn proper behaviors as well. In this age of rampant vulgarity and semi-Fascist discourse in our political life, a little propriety would seem to be in order. N'est-ce pas?
Mike Devine ’62
5 Years AgoI don't really care if 100 seniors disagree with something that George Will wrote sometime in the past, and I don't really care if they'd prefer not to listen to him. I certainly would prefer not to listen to them. So, if they'd stayed away or walked out, I wouldn't really care about that either.
But I do care that they were rude, disrespectful, and misused the Baccalaureate service.
And still worse, it seems that none of their mentors (in the choir stalls; I'm looking at the photo published in PAW) saw fit to say anything. A simple "This is not OK, it's rude, please leave," would have sufficed.
Edmund C. Tiryakian ’78
5 Years AgoI was offended and saddened by the churlish silent protest of the brilliant political commentator George Will by so many seniors at the Baccalaureate address in, of all places, the Chapel. I wondered how many of the protesters had firsthand knowledge of the brilliance of his columns over the years: His mastery of English and his knowledge of U.S. history, politics, and constitutional minutiae are unparalleled and make most other political commentators look woefully ill-equipped.
The treatment doled out to Will by turning backs en masse, because apparently one column from 2014 had “offended” some, was itself highly offensive and disproportionate and a stain on Princeton’s commitment to, in the words of President Eisgruber ’83, “civil virtues” such as common manners and a willingness to entertain the views some might find disagreeable. What is most lamentable is the irony of the shunning of Will: I wonder if any of the protesters realize that he is one of the very few principled conservatives who has consistently taken Donald Trump to task for deviating from bedrock principles of conservatism, calling him out as a charlatan if not an ignoramus. To treat a modern-day verbal hero with such disdain and effrontery was a disgrace.
Jacob Denz ’10
5 Years AgoWho could disagree, in the abstract, with President Eisgruber’s calls for civil discourse and learning from others with whom one disagrees? But civility is not the same as submissiveness. The students who silently turned their backs on George Will, who had been chosen to speak at a graduation event intended for the entire University community, presumably did so in part because they were not given the opportunity to verbally contest what he had to say. They did not leave or seek to prevent Will from speaking.
It is difficult to see why values of civility and democratic discourse would have required docile compliance with a campus ritual wherein Will’s voice was elevated to the status of a neutral dispenser of wisdom. Unspecified calls for civility too often leave no place for collective action to pursue real changes in the distribution of power. At their worst, such exhortations ask us always and everywhere to engage in politics with the sanctimoniousness of a Sunday-morning talk show where nothing more than the conversation itself is at stake.
Student activists are often wrong. But they also have to spend the rest of their lives in a world that people like Will have created. Their desire to act, and not merely opine, is an antidote to the smugness of a comfortable managerial and professional class for which politics has long since ceased to hold any sense of urgency.
Clark H. Woolley ’61
5 Years Ago“Civility, respect, tolerance. These were the themes driven home to members of the Class of 2019,” PAW wrote (On the Campus, July 10). They didn’t all get the message, as evidenced by the disgusting image of students turning their backs toward the Baccalaureate speaker. Many of us see this as a self-righteous exhibition of a sense of moral superiority, ironically displayed in the Chapel. George Will *68 thanked the students, “including those who have helped to ... illustrate some of my points” — described by PAW as “a comment that some students took as a direct swipe at them.”
Perfect. Well deserved.
Jack M. Zimmerman ’48
5 Years AgoThe July 10 issue of PAW contains a picture of George Will *68 giving this year’s Baccalaureate address in the Chapel. The students have their backs turned to him in protest. They are saying that they don’t want to hear a different opinion from their own. That’s perilously close to saying, “My mind is made up. Don’t bother me with the facts” – an attitude no one with the blessing of a Princeton education should ever have!
Go Tigers.