Author: Chloe Jenkins-Sleczkowski
President Jonathan Veitch and the Board of Trustees selected New York Times conservative-leaning columnist David Brooks to be the 2010 Commencement speaker on Feb. 18. The choice underscored the administration’s attempt to diversify the school’s public image and appeal to a broader base of support, according to ASOC President Andrew DeBlock (senior).
According to DeBlock, student opposition to Brooks as the speaker is widespread, but much of the student frustration is centered around the fact that the administration did not seek student input before making the decision.
“There was virtually no student say in the process,” said Board of Trustees Student Representative Max Rowles (senior), who serves on the Honorary Degree committee. The committee is in charge of selecting the speaker from a list of potential individuals. Rowles was the only student on the committee, and therefore virtually the only student involved in the search.
According to Rowles, the committee had a discussion to create a preliminary list of candidates, including Brooks, but he was not personally consulted in the final decision.
“My vote was, unfortunately, never asked for or considered in selecting Mr. Brooks,” he said.
Rowles did survey the senior class for suggestions or responses from students, but said his results were not taken into consideration. Student votes showed support for John Stewart of the Daily Show, Amy Goodman from Democracy Now and Oxy alum Terry Gilliam of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Some students, however, consider Brooks a legitimate choice.
“I don’t think the Oxy administration is trying to cater to more conservative views, but just trying to show that we don’t have to hate all conservatives, and that Oxy doesn’t have to be a 100 percent as far left as possible school, which I think is a good message,” said Alyson Melzer (junior).Director of Communications Jim Tranquada noted that President Veitch’s inaugural address touched on this effort, citing two of Oxy’s most successful alums.
“I know that we honor [Barack Obama ’83 and Jack Kemp ’57] best by preparing our students to be thoughtful citizens, while making our classrooms open to the full range of political opinion – left, right and center,” Veitch said in his address.
“President Veitch was impressed by [Brooks], even though he doesn’t agree with all the positions that Brooks takes in his column,” said Tranquada. “He found him to be thoughtful and a practicer of civil discourse, someone who is able to debate and disagree without name-calling or stereotyping, or the other kinds of unfortunate practices that we see characterizing political discourse today.”
DeBlock recognized the importance of opposing viewpoints.
“I think we need to include as many disparate voices as possible,” he said. He also speculated as to the administration’s motives.
“I think they’re trying to bring in not only a public perception, but also bring in alumni that they’ve isolated in the past, alumni that they’ve excluded from participating in the college in many ways,” said DeBlock. “The perception, from their perspective at least, is that the school has gone way too far in one direction.”
ASOC Senator David LaPorte (senior) linked the Brooks decisions to the administration’s efforts to appeal to a broader range of potential donors to the college.
“The Board of Trustees is really worried about the endowment and really worried about the economic climate,” he said. “They need to brand Oxy to a whole new group of people, and they also need to make Oxy look better to a lot of the alumni who sit a little bit to the right.”
“They brought in an intellectual moderate conservative very intentionally to try and have an elevated discussion,” DeBlock said. “They made a good choice.”
The administration’s purported efforts to reach a conservative base notwithstanding, some students surmise that Brooks’ speech will have a positive effect on the college. “Regardless of his political persuasion, I’m sure he’ll have some interesting things to say,” said Luca Valle (senior).
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