Identity of Speakers
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Robert Zoellick
Unaffiliated
Invited for non-academic lectureRobert Zoellick was a deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush, and was nominated by Bush as president of the World Bank in 2007.
Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
University-sponsored lecture/address/panel
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Incident Political Orientation:
Right-of-spectrum -
Incident Responses:
Rally or Protests
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Incident Status:
No litigation
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
Robert Zoellick was a deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush, and was nominated by Bush as president of the World Bank in 2007. In 2013, Zoellick was invited to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree at Swarthmore College on June 2. Some students and faculty objected to Zoellick’s participation in the commencement; one student wrote that Zoellick’s “whole career has been built on one morally dubious enterprise after another.” The school’s administration remained supportive of Zoellick. Nevertheless, as a result of this controversy, Zoellick declined Swarthmore’s invitation and the honorary degree in April 2013, saying that “I don’t want to disrupt what should be a special day for graduates, their families, and friends.”
