Colleges shun politics in graduation speaker invites

Top colleges are spurning politics in their choices of commencement speakers as the first year of President Trump’s second term unfolds.

Keynote speakers announced in recent weeks for the class of 2025 range from R&B singer Usher to Kermit the Frog, with hardly a member of the Trump administration or former Biden team in sight.

Campus insiders interviewed by The Washington Times said this preference for athletes, scientists, pastors, academics, entertainers and entrepreneurs at left-leaning campuses reflects both political fatigue and a fear of reprisals from Mr. Trump, who has not been shy about targeting higher education funding.

“Students are just sick of hearing about all the negative things going on,” said Louis C. Mancuso, communications director for the Student Government Association at the University of Maryland, where Kermit will entertain graduates on May 21. “Turning to non-partisan folks is the right way to go right now.” 

Mr. Mancuso, a freshman at the College Park campus, said his fellow students don’t want to hear about “deportations, taxes, tariffs, the S&P 500” and other controversies as they celebrate their accomplishments.

Some professors seconded that emotion.

“Maybe we can all do without politics on Graduation Day,” said Gail Heriot, a University of San Diego law professor and a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

William Bennett, a former university administrator who served as President Reagan’s education secretary in the 1980s, said the invitations show “the heat is on” campuses to avoid wading into national politics.

“Universities won’t invite Trump or Trump people because they don’t like him, and they can’t invite Democrats because they’re losers who might offend the wrong side,” Mr. Bennett said. “I think you can do better than Kermit the Frog and still avoid politics. But I’ve heard of worse speakers.”

Historically, elite private and large public universities have favored Democrats over Republicans on the graduation stage. 

This year, several are passing over liberal lawmakers and activists as well, relegating them to smaller, ideologically sympathetic campuses — the only kind of venues open to conservative speakers for years.

“In a polarized political environment and with Republicans having the momentum, universities understand the downside of political speakers,” said Donald Critchlow, a U.S. historian and director of Arizona State University’s Center for American Institutions. “A conservative will upset the faculty and some students, and a progressive has the potential of alienating donors.”

Excluding liberals

Several universities with a history of hostility to conservatives have quietly moved away from the political left in commencement invitations this year.

At the private University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution where then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden spoke in 2013, actress and alumna Elizabeth Banks will speak on May 19.

“That colleges are avoiding political speakers is obvious,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a Penn professor of education history. “But it’s also very sad. Our job is to grapple with complex issues. Whatever his other virtues, Kermit the Frog is unlikely to help us do that.”

The University of Maryland is featuring Kermit to honor its late alumnus Jim Henson, who created the iconic green sock puppet as part of “The Muppets” multimedia franchise. 

Kermit’s invitation comes as the student government at the public school has protested the Trump administration’s immigration policies and marks a pivot away from 2024, when Democratic Gov. Wes Moore spoke.

Usher, whose full name is Usher Raymond IV, will address private Emory University on May 12. Last year, the Atlanta campus hosted Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, a pro-choice advocate who leads the Morehouse School of Medicine.

At the George Washington University, a federally chartered campus in the nation’s capital, anti-Israel activists protested former Biden White House communications director Jen Psaki’s keynote last year. On May 18, the private campus will host Jonquel Jones, a 2019 alumnus and a WNBA star.

The public University of Georgia, which invited several politicians and political appointees in the 2010s, has likewise shifted to alumni and non-political speakers in recent years. Alumnus Jarryd Wallace, a four-time Paralympian runner, will speak on May 9.

“Institutions are scared about what the response to their actions will be, including how it will affect their funding and their ability to remain institutionally autonomous,” said Timothy Cain, a University of Georgia professor of higher education. “As such, they are retreating from their previous positions rather than being bold.”

Leslie K. Paige, a spokeswoman for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a liberal-arts advocacy group, said a growing number of colleges quietly adopted “institutional neutrality” toward politics over the past several years.

“The convocation event planners within these universities have correctly read the room,” Ms. Paige said. “Regardless of who they invited, some faction within the school would be unhappy about the choice.”

Smaller stages

Because of their close relationship with national security leaders, the nation’s military academies will likely be the only large venues where politicos address graduates next month.

The service academies typically rotate among the president, vice president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff each year.

No Trump administration officials have been confirmed to speak anywhere else in May – a reversal from the president’s first term, when small-campus addresses by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and former Vice President Mike Pence sparked protests.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Politicians who do speak this year will face smaller crowds than in the past.

Colleen Shogan, who served as U.S. archivist under Mr. Biden until the Trump administration removed her in February, will speak on May 10 at Warren Wilson College, a small private liberal arts school in North Carolina.

State politicians and retired federal lawmakers will take the stage elsewhere.

In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin will speak at Liberty University and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears will speak at Regent University. Both lawmakers are Republicans and both Christian colleges have favored conservatives in the past.

Former Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, will speak at private Albion College on May 3.

At Columbia Law School, anti-Israel protesters objected to Kristen Clarke, head of the Biden Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, speaking last year. 

The Ivy League institution’s law school has invited former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat and 1994 alumnus, to speak on May 18.

Political scientist Robert Weissberg, a retired professor at the University of Illinois, said such speakers are likely to leave audiences “bored to tears.”

“Nobody gets offended by plain vanilla,” Mr. Weissberg said.

The future

It is unclear how long colleges will shun political speakers and whether the trend will discourage graduation protesters.

Last year, the University of Southern California and Columbia University cancelled their main commencements due to campus tensions over Israel’s war in Gaza.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a Philadelphia free-speech group that tracks campus bias, estimates that commencement speaker disinvitations have decreased over the past 10 years as colleges increasingly play it safe.

Nevertheless, the group noted that private Dickinson College in Pennsylvania disinvited moderate CNN host Michael Smerconish from addressing the class of 2024 after students objected to his past support of racial profiling. 

“Commencement season disinvitations ebb and flow over time,” said Graham Piro, a FIRE program officer.

According to Young America’s Foundation, a national network of conservative college students, the left-leaning bias of most universities makes it likely they will go back to inviting Democrats as soon as the political winds shift.

“Colleges and universities, after four years of indoctrinating the rising generation, can’t seem to avoid sending students on their way without one final lecture from a leftist,” said Spencer Brown, a YAF spokesman.

He said the group’s latest survey shows that several left-leaning media figures from CBS, NBC, New York Times and MSNBC will still speak on campuses in May — and “not a single voice from Fox News or right-of-center media” will be heard.

Ronald J. Rychlak, a professor of law and government and former associate dean at the University of Mississippi, said “a new and controversial administration” doesn’t mean the era of political commencement speeches is over for good.

“Most universities are reluctant to venture too far into waters like that,” Mr. Rychlak said. “Two years from now — one way or another — things will likely be quite different.”

This article was originally published by The Washington Times on April 10, 2025.