Posted on 05/20/2003 2:35:12 PM PDT by Remedy
HERNDON, VA A survey released today by Young Americas Foundation indicates top colleges and universities across the nation overwhelmingly choose liberal speakers for commencement exercises.
Using U.S. News & World Reports ranking of the top 50 colleges and top 50 universities in the country, Young Americas Foundation has found for the tenth consecutive year that commencement speakers at these elite schools are heavily weighted to the left.
Commenting on the annual study, Young Americas Foundation President Ron Robinson explained, "For ten years, weve shown that college administrators have used commencement ceremonies to send their students off with one more predictable leftist lecture. This year the most prestigious schools exclude scholars like Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas for the likes of Kofi Annan, Madeleine Albright, Walter Mondale, and Geraldine Ferraro."
* Washed-up Clinton administration officials and other liberal political figures delivering commencement addresses at top schools include former Vice President Walter Mondale at Macalester College; former Sen. George Mitchell at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Clinton administration Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at Washington University in St. Louis and Smith College; UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at Duke University; Clinton White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta at University of California Berkeley (university-wide convocation); Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm at University of Michigan Ann Arbor; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at New York University and Wake Forest University; former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro at Case Western Reserve University; New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson at Middlebury College; former president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo at Harvard University; and Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell at Franklin & Marshall College.
* University administrators love of liberal media personalities continues. This years cast includes PBSs Jim Lehrer at Hamilton College; NBCs Tim Russert at Lehigh University; MSNBCs Chris Matthews at College of the Holy Cross; Inside Edition anchor Deborah Norville at Bucknell University; New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman at Yale University (class day); NPRs Linda Wertheimer at Wellesley College; Newsweek columnist Anna Quindlen at Colgate University; former NewYork Times columnist Anthony Lewis at Oberlin College; and syndicated columnist Molly Ivins at Scripps College.
* Other notable liberal speakers this year include author Jonathan Kozol at Penn State University (Liberal Arts ceremony); social activist Tim Wise at Grinnell College; International Campaign to Ban Landmines Founder Jody Williams at Wesleyan University; former Clinton nominee (withdrawn) for assistant attorney general for civil rights Lani Guinier at Bard College; historian Arthur Schlesinger at Whitman College; Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman at Sarah Lawrence College and Princeton University; and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu at University of Pennsylvania.
The leftist domination of commencement addresses in 2003 is not an irregularity. In the ten years that Young Americas Foundation has been tracking them, liberals have dominated while conservatives have generally been shut out. Some schools have an outrageous track record of hosting liberal commencement speakers.
* Yale hosted (for class day) actress Jodie Foster in 1993, activist Sargent Shriver in 1994, former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke in 1995, actor Henry Winkler in 1996, author David McCullough in 1997, NBCs Tom Brokaw in 1998, Clinton advisor David Gergen in 1999, journalist Bob Woodward in 2000, Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2001, New York Governor George Pataki in 2002, and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in 2003.
* Tulane University hosted Carter administration official Andrew Young in 1995, cancer researcher Andrea Martin in 1996, Mohammed Ali trainer Ferdie Pacheco in 1997, Clinton administration official Donna Shalala in 1998, ABCs Cokie Roberts in 1999, Time magazines Walter Isaacson in 2000, Childrens Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman in 2001, New York Times columnist William Safire in 2002, and author David Halberstam in 2003. Tulane University has hosted only one conservative in the past nine years.
Even though liberals dominate commencements at the top schools in the nation, one would believe more than a few well-known conservatives would be on the list. However, only four top schools hosted well-know conservatives: University of Notre Dame hosted Sen. Richard Lugar; Yeshiva University hosted Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes; Georgia Institute of Technology hosted Sen. Elizabeth Dole; and Centre College hosted the husband and wife team of Sen. Mitch McConnell and Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. Secretary Chao is the only Bush administration official speaking at a top-rated school, while four schools are hosting former Clinton administration officials.
Notably, FOX News personalities like Sean Hannity, Bill OReilly, and Tony Snow are absent from the list of commencement speakers at top universities despite FOXs ratings as the most watched cable news channel. Instead, people like Jim Lehrer, Tim Russert, and Chris Matthews appear on the list year after year.
Furthermore, conservatives recently appearing on the New York Times best-seller lists, like Peggy Noonan, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and Pat Buchanan, are absent from the top school commencements whereas liberal authors like Anna Quindlen, Thomas Friedman, Chris Matthews, and Anthony Lewis are speaking at top schools commencements.
For further information or to schedule an interview, please call Rick Parsons at (800) 292-9231.
Young Americas Foundation is an educational organization promoting conservative ideas on our nations campuses through lectures, publications, and conferences. This past academic year, the Foundation sponsored over 300 lectures, including addresses by Walter Williams, Ann Coulter, Ben Stein, and John Stossel.
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Phil Donahue
LOL - that is scraping the bottom of the barrel from the outside.
but college is where I ultimately became a conservative
As a result of
?
If I were going to invite a media personality/journalist, I would invite Laurie Dhue.
In order to comply with strict Free Republic posting rules, I have posted a picture of Laurie Dhue along with my comments.
Couldn't tell from the context, whether her appearance, perspective or both mesmerized him.
It is with a great sense of honor I speak to you today. As I look over the assembled class of 2003, their faces beaming with the bright promise of tomorrow and the Jagermeister shots of last night, I am reminded of my own youthful ambitions - making the world a better place, helping those in need, having group sex with the pom-pon squad. While none of these have yet worked out for me, the dreams are still alive. One or two, anyway.
In conclusion, if you are an English major, I have a lawn maintenance business and need people for my leaf cleanup crew. You can bring your resume by the red pickup parked outside.
Thought I had gone to a top University when I graduated from Purdue.
I worked with a Purdue grad who was personally and professionally first rate. I worked for an Ivy League grad who was neither.
Folk rise or fall on their own talent and effort.
if you are an English major, I have a lawn maintenance business and need people for to teach my leaf cleanup crew English J
When my husband graduated from GA Tech in 1997 (at the age of 48 with a degree in Math), the speaker was Zell Miller. Zell's grandson was graduating that year. Zell gave a great speech and it was a wonderful day for all the graduates.
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