AMHERST – Hampshire College resolved its choice of commencement speaker Monday, but not until after President Jonathan Lash nixed his own selection during the weekend.
In an apologetic email to students Sunday, Lash explained that he asked Dr. Emily Wong of Massachusetts General Hospital not to serve as Hampshire College’s guest commencement speaker after hearing objections on campus.
Hampshire College has a long tradition of graduating students identifying their commencement speaker. Lash had chosen Wong who he had come to know during recent hospital stays, though without consulting with students.
The college’s commencement is May 14 and on Monday it announced that New York activist and writer Reina Gossett was its new choice of speaker.
“In light of the issues our community has been discussing in recent weeks, and the fact that the suggestion of Dr. Wong as a speaker came from me, rather than from students, I felt that this was the right thing to do,” Lash wrote in his email to graduating students regarding his decision to uninvite Wong.
“It isn’t a presidential invitation, it’s a student choice,” Lash reiterated in a phone interview with the Gazette on Wednesday. “Frankly, I just made a mistake. It was completely inconsistent with our protocol.”
Faculty, in consultation with students and staff, chose Gossett because her life and activism connect with issues raised by students involving racism, transphobia and sexual violence, the college announced Monday.
Lash’s earlier decision to bring Wong to campus for the keynote address had not been announced and did not sit well with some students on campus when they found out about it, said Michael Klare, a Five Colleges professor of peace and world security studies based at Hampshire College. Klare has been among a group of faculty members who have been working to get the college to better address the needs of students of color as well as international students who feel their needs are not being met by the college, he said.
“There has been a lot of turbulence on campus already coming from various corners of the student body,” Klare said. “This decision about the commencement speaker exposed raw nerves … because it didn’t come from students, it came from the president.”
Klare said Lash’s apology about his decision to decide on a commencement speaker was important for the campus to hear.
“I think he wisely made a decision to back away from it and apologize” Klare said. “It was a very sagacious move on his part.”
Each year, Hampshire College graduating students vote on a list of names for their commencement speaker, which the president’s office works to secure.
As Lash explained in his email to students, this year’s process proved “remarkably difficult,” as the college could not secure any of the speakers students had identified. As part of the nomination process, faculty and other college staff play a role in getting names for students to vote on, according to Yaniris Fernandez, associate vice president of academic affairs and a member of the college’s commencement committee.
Among the prospective speakers contacted were Ta-Nehisi Coates, LeVar Burton, Jane Goodall, Patrisse Cullors and Lupita Nyong. In addition, William Nye, Rachel Maddow, Byonce Knowles-Carter and President Barack Obama did not respond to invitations, according to the college.
“This particular year, as we sent out inquiry after inquiry, people weren’t available for one reason or another and it got to be late March and we didn’t have a speaker,” Lash told the Gazette.
Lash informed students Sunday that he was motivated to invite Wong because time was getting tight to find a commencement speaker and because his conversations with her felt “Hampshire-esque.”
“She is a physician committed to using her scientific training to better people’s lives, specializing in infectious diseases in South Africa, where HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis disproportionately affect communities of color,” he explained in his email. “In turn, she was very excited to learn about a college where rigorous interdisciplinary work and a passionate faculty and student body converge into a force for radical social change.”
Fernandez said there was dissatisfaction expressed on campus when word got out to students that Wong was not on the list voted on by students and that better communication about the struggles the college was having securing a commencement speaker would have helped in the process.
“In previous years, it’s worked well; this year it didn’t,” she said. “”We learn from our mistakes.”
Lash said he plans to invite Wong to speak at the college another time.
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.