From RawStory.com:
When Condoleezza Rice took center stage at Boston College this week,
I wonder what kind of reaction she was expecting. No one has ever
accused Ms. Rice of being unintelligent and few would argue that her
academic accomplishments are unimpressive. In her lifetime, after all,
Rice has mastered much more than the piano.
But when Rice went to receive her honorary degree from Boston
College on Monday morning, the students protested. “About 50 students
stood with their backs toward the stage,” the Associated Press
reported, “as Rice was introduced to give her commencement speech.”
Maybe 50 is a paltry number compared with the hundreds who graduated,
but in academia, where respect is paramount, it means something that some graduates turned their backs to the Secretary of State.
Just a short while before, the writer Steve Almond, who holds the
position of adjunct professor of English at the college, wrote an open
letter in the Boston Globe to William P. Leahy, the school’s
president. “Dear Father Leahy,” Almond wrote. “I am writing to resign
my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College. I am
doing so–after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret–as a
direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year’s graduation ) But I
am not writing this letter simply because of an objection to the war
against Iraq. My concern is more fundamental. Simply put, Rice is a
liar.”