Professors and students at Rutgers University have joined forces to protest an administrative decision to ask former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to serve as this year’s keynote commencement speaker.
The university’s New Brunswick Faculty Council passed a resolution that demands the board of governors take back its invitation to Ms. Rice, Fox News reported. The reason?
The council said the school should not let Ms. Rice speak because she had a role in the war in Iraq and in President George W. Bush’s allowance for “enhanced interrogation techniques” like water boarding, Fox News said.
From the council’s statement: “Condoleezza Rice … played a prominent role in the administration’s effort to mislead the American people about the presence of weapons of mass destruction.”
Students, too, have jumped aboard the protest train.
“Do the positive aspects of her personal accomplishments really outweigh the destruction of war she contributed to during her political career? She was a major proponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which has been arguably the worst and most destructive decision in the history of U.S. foreign policy,” said editorial staff of the student-run newspaper, The Daily Targum.
Ms. Rice was a provost at Stanford University, and then served as Mr. Bush’s national security adviser and secretary of state.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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