College commencements are being met this graduation season with a drumbeat of protests, walkouts and tense moments as the war in Gaza underscores a tumultuous year on many American campuses.
According to NBC News speeches delivered by celebrities, athletes and notable figures — normally meant to bring excitement and motivate graduates — are drawing controversy as well, and in ways not typically seen at such venerated events.
During Harvard University’s commencement ceremony Thursday, a Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, said he immediately confronted Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa after her address to clarify remarks that he said sounded antisemitic.
Zarchi, who had been sitting onstage, told NBC News on Friday that he had wanted Ressa to return to the podium, but he wasn’t able to hear her response.
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“When I approached her, my precise words verbatim was to encourage her to consider, to take this opportunity to clarify this,” Zarchi said. “My hope was she would.”
Ressa, in her 23-minute speech, began by saying: “Because I accepted your invitation to be here today, I was attacked online and called antisemitic by power and money because they want power and money, while the other side was already attacking me because I had been onstage with Hillary Clinton. Hard to win, right?”
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Zarchi said it was unclear whom Ressa was referring to when saying “they want power and money,” but added that the language can be triggering in the context of Jewish people when they are stereotyped as being in control.
Neither Ressa nor Rappler, a Philippine news site that she co-founded in 2012, immediately responded to a request for comment.
Rappler on Friday published the full text of Ressa’s Harvard speech. The site also included Ressa’s post on X earlier this month in which she responded to Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., a Harvard alum who had criticized the school’s decision to invite Ressa and called the journalist “antisemitic” over an editorial published by Rappler.
“Since when does calling for an end to journalist killings in Gaza or a ceasefire become antisemitic?!” Ressa had posted in her response.
But Zarchi said he was dismayed that Ressa’s Harvard speech showed solidarity with the actions of pro-Palestinian protesters, hundreds of whom staged a walkout during Thursday’s commencement in opposition to the school’s disqualification of 13 students involved in earlier protests.
“I’m getting a nonstop flood of messages from students and families who felt violated by the commencement,” Zarchi said, adding that “the tone and voice of commencement is one that gave a platform and a megaphone to a hostile minority who paralyzed the university.”
In her address, Ressa — who gained international attention for defying then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to shut down Rappler as he waged a brutal war on drugs — said she “loved” the earlier speeches from graduating students who spoke, at least one of whom claimed Harvard violated freedom of speech by punishing students with suspensions.
“The campus protests are testing everyone in America,” Ressa said. “Protests are healthy; they shouldn’t be violent. Protests give voice; they shouldn’t be silenced.”
Ressa was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Ivy League institution. Harvard officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The university is only the latest to attract attention for its commencement speakers. This month, comedian Jerry Seinfeld faced boos and a walkout while onstage at Duke University in North Carolina.
Students carrying Palestinian flags walked down the aisle as he spoke and others walked out of the school’s football stadium, where the ceremony was held. Others in support of Seinfeld began chanting “Jerry.”
“A lot of you are thinking, ‘I can’t believe they invited this guy.’ Too late,” Seinfeld said during his speech.
“I say, use your privilege. I grew up a Jewish boy from New York,” he continued. “That is a privilege if you want to be a comedian.”
Seinfeld, who is Jewish, has been a vocal supporter of Israel, and he visited the country following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the capturing of hostages that led to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Beyond the conflict overseas, another commencement speech this month, by Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, drew backlash after video of his address to graduates of Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school in Kansas, was shared online.
Butker, who holds conservative Catholic beliefs, took aim at several cultural and political flashpoints, including President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 policies, Pride month and abortion.
“While Covid might have played a large role throughout your formative years, it is not unique,” he said. “Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values and media all stem from pervasiveness of disorder.”
He also told female graduates that while “some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world,” he “would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
A spokesperson for Butker did not respond to a request for comment in the wake of the controversy.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Wednesday that he didn’t believe Butker “was speaking ill to women, but he has his opinions, and we respect that.”
The NFL’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, Jonathan Beane, said in response that Butker spoke “in his personal capacity” and that “his views are not those of the NFL as an organization.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell downplayed the uproar, telling reporters after the spring league meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, that Butker is representative of “a diversity of opinions and thoughts” in America.
“I think that’s something that we treasure,” he said, “and that’s part of, I think, ultimately what makes us as a society better.”
Karyl Kicenski, a continuing lecturer in the communications department at UCLA, whose campus has been roiled by pro-Palestinian protests, said it's important for speakers to understand whom their audience is — so as not to alienate people with differing views.
"This is a very different year, but you also have to be authentic because students can see through the bulls----," Kicenski said of commencement speakers, adding, "I'm just glad it's not me."
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