The President Joe Biden will be going to deliver its commencement address on May 19 which is all set to get announced by the Morehouse College. But this get paused as some of the faculty members are not agreeing with this decision, as said by the two people who are familiar with matter and an email to faculty reviewed by NBC News.
Morehouse College’s provost and senior vice president of academic affairs, Kendrick Brown wrote in an email to faculty members that, “This week, I received an inquiry from concerned faculty about rumors they were hearing about President Biden’s selection as the 2024 Commencement speaker.”
Brown has announced to convey a virtual meeting on Thursday which would be also joined by the students along with college President David Thomas, he said “this meeting is to extend an opportunity for faculty with different perspectives on the selection of our Commencement speaker to ask questions and make comments.”
Biden has supported Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip that result into increasing protest in college campuses which worked as a pushback against leadership’s decision. The protests from the beginning of war in October have already put pressure Biden, and other top administration officials, to dramatically scale back appearances at college campuses.
In an election year, commencement season is the time when presidents reach young audiences and also offers them opportunities by highlighting their career and future. But this year’s addresses would not provide any benefit to Biden because of growing protests due to his refusal to call for a permanent, immediate cease-fire in Gaza without conditions. Biden is now struggling for votes and and recent polling also indicates many Black voters are not enthusiastic about supporting his candidacy.
A Morehouse College student, Calvin Bell said after the flag incident in February that, “Students are not in favor of the way in which the United States has handled this situation, and are surely not in favor of the trauma and the pain and the genocide that the Palestinian people are going through — but also that innocent civilians and Israel are going through as well.” By this we can say that Morehouse is also facing students speaking out about the war in Gaza, like other colleges.