A pro-Palestinian coalition of faculty and staff members across Georgia universities put out a statement Tuesday adamantly opposing Morehouse College’s decision to have President Joe Biden give this year’s commencement speech.
The White House confirmed earlier Tuesday that Biden would address Morehouse’s graduating class on May 19 in Atlanta. The decision presents the president with a platform at one of the country’s top historically Black campuses ahead of the November election.
But in a statement shared to Instagram, the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine – Georgia (FSJP) wrote that inviting Biden to speak “will do serious reputational damage to Morehouse and other schools in the Atlanta University Center consortium.” The decision by Morehouse comes as pro-Palestinian protests have rocked American colleges across the country, with demonstrators demanding that their institutions cease all activities with businesses in Israel amid its war against Hamas in Gaza.
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“It will alienate donors. It will discourage new applications from a youth generation that overwhelmingly supports a ceasefire,” the group’s statment continued. “It will prompt significant protest among current students and faculty, subjecting them to discipline and, potentially, dangerous confrontations with the police.”
Recent pro-Palestinian protests at top universities such as Columbia, New York University and Yale have resulted in dozens of individuals—including many students—being detained by police for breaking campus rules. The over 100 Columbia students who were arrested were also suspended by the university.
The Context
Preliminary polling has indicated the 2024 presidential race is nearly neck and neck between Biden and Donald Trump, and both candidates have focused campaign efforts on swing states like Georgia. Biden narrowly flipped Georgia in the 2020 election, beating Trump by a margin of just 0.2 percent, or around 12,600 votes.
Biden has faced pushback from some key parts of the Democratic electorate—including younger voters—over his handling of the war in Gaza. Some Democrats protested the president’s policies by voting “uncommitted” during primary races earlier this spring. Biden has recently taken a harder line with Israel.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.