Barnard students oppose Anne-Marie Slaughter '80's nomination as Commencement speaker

Barnard Collegeannouncedlast week that former University professor and Dean of the Wilson School Anne-Marie Slaughter '80 has been selected to speak at its Commencement ceremony in May, a decision that has sparkedcontroversyand debate among Barnard students as she was not on the shortlist for speakers nominated through a student-ran survey.

Slaughterserved as the dean of the Wilson School from 2002 to 2009 and went on to work as the director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State. She is currently the president and CEO of New America, a think tank in Washington and New York.

The Barnard senior class council administered a survey to students to gauge interest about who they would like to see speak at Commencement, according to Barnard Student Government Association President Shivani Vikuntam. She explained that the survey had a very high participation rate, garnering 427 responses out of a class of about 650 students.

The survey resulted in 18 nominations for Commencement speakers. According to Vikuntam, the list included author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Beyoncé, Amal Clooney, Laverne Cox, Viola Davis, Tina Fey, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mindy Kaling, Toni Morrison, Amy Poehler, Shonda Rhimes, J.K. Rowling, Amy Schumer, Sonia Sotomayor '76, Jon Stewart, Elizabeth Warren, Emma Watson and Oprah Winfrey, but not Slaughter.

Barnard senior Mariam Elnozahysaid that she was frustrated because the solicited student input was ignored, asSlaughter was not on the list of speakers students had suggested.

"For the second year in the row it's another white woman, occupying the same position, preaching the same thing, having the same sort of perspective on what feminism should be, and it kind of seems like a branding,” Elnozahy added.

“If you repeat that motion enough times, you develop a brand, and I think something I've learned in my classes at Barnard a lot is to be against that branding and that standardization of one singular feminism," she said.

According to Elnozahy, Barnard has featured only two women of color as Commencement speakers over the past 10 years: Leymah Gbowee in 2013 and Anna Deavere Smith in 2007. Five of the 10 speakers have been politicians or businesswomen.

Slaughter wrote in an email statement that she understands the concerns of Barnard's students.

"We have an unlovely symmetry: too few women at the top and far too many at the bottom. I also understand the desire to provide as many fora as possible for women of color, whose voices are so often silenced," Slaughter added in her email.

Elnozahy created an online petition that called for Adichie to be made the Commencement speaker, and had created a petition that had received over 200 signatures.

47 Barnard faculty members submitted and signed aletterto the editor published in the Columbia Spectator in support of Elnozahy’s call for greater diversity and student participation in the planning of Commencement.

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Barnard President Debora Spar also submitted aletterto the editor to the Columbia Spectator in response to Elnozahy’s piece. In her letter,Spar wrote that she was impressed byElnozahy's article and agreed that her office can think about ways in which the medal honorees could address the graduating class.

Elnozahy noted that she has received an overwhelming amount of support, and many faculty members, deans and administrators have been willing to sit down with her and discuss her concerns.

“I told President Spar when I met with her, the silver lining of this is that I can write a really angry Facebook status and 24 hours later be sitting here speaking to you about my grievances, and that's something that I value, that's why I came to Barnard –that's really important to me,” she explained.

Anna O’Sullivan, director of media relations at Barnard,shared Spar’s written comment via email.

Spar wrote that a tremendous amount of thought and effort that goes into selecting both the Commencement speaker and honorary medalists. She explained that medalistsare selected by a committee comprised of her, four students, four faculty members, four trustees and some staff members.

"We brainstorm in the fall term before the scheduled Commencement; compile a long list of potential medalists; and over the course of several meetings, winnow down to a selection of five or six people," Spar wrote.

She added that by contrast, the Commencement speaker selection is not handled by either a committee or a student vote.

"The process of finding a Commencement speaker is longer, more involved and quite competitive, usually involving a complicated alchemy of diplomacy, persistence and luck. If you look back at each Barnard Commencement speaker in the past decade, for example, President Obama, Secretary Clinton or Meryl Streep, none of those speakers came through a student nomination process,” Spar wrote.

Slaughter wrote that overall, the vibrant debate demonstrates that Barnard is doing its job of fostering independent thinking and individual action.

At Barnard's Commencement ceremony, Slaughter and three other honorees will receive the Barnard Medal of Distinction, the college’s highest honor. The other honorees includesocial justice lobbyist and public policy activist Sister Simone Campbell, MIT computer scientist Shafi Goldwasser and Adichie.

"I am enormously honored to be one of such a distinguished group, all the more as I am a great fan of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's writing," Slaughter wrote.

“I think we're all cognizant of the fact that Anne-Marie Slaughter is a phenomenal speaker," Vikuntamsaid.