Facebook notifications bombarded seniors Monday night following the announcement that DePauw invited James B. Stewart ‘73 to speak at commencement.
The conversation on the DePauw Class of 2012 forum created by student government sparked anger among some students who felt the lack of diversity in recent DePauw speakers represents the university in a negative light.
Senior senator Sam Wong said the initial comment triggered an unexpected reaction from other members of the group.
"Basically, the forum exploded into this argument about DePauw and our lack of diversity," Wong said.
Senior J.C. Pankratz, one of the seniors arguing that the speaker choice does not represent the student body, said the past five years of commencement speakers have sent a negative message to DePauw students.
"We're sort of saying that this is what you could become, this alum is what you could become because you've received a DePauw education," Pankratz said. "And for the past several years over and over that model has also been a white male."
Senior Zach Clapp argued back on the Facebook forum that the speaker choice should not be scrutinized. He said he is excited about Stewart's speech and cares very little about a speaker's race or gender as long as the individual delivers an effective speech.
"I've been to one graduation, and I just think all graduation commencement speakers are going to say the same thing you know, ‘Go out there and try hard. Get out in the world and do your best,'" Clapp said. "I don't think it really matters if you're red or black or brown — doesn't matter what color you are."
Wong said that the negative reaction to Stewart may have stemmed from recent events on campus that centered around a lack of acceptance.
"Our campus right now — the tension is really high, so people have been overreacting lately probably in light of recent events on campus, the things that happened over Halloween weekend," Wong said.
After noticing the trend of white male commencement speakers in past years, Pankratz said she hopes to create a dialogue about the significance to the DePauw campus.
"We've noticed this trend and we want to talk about what this means for our campus and for our senior class," Pankratz said.
Wong said the senior senators will meet Friday afternoon to discuss the recent conflicts voiced in the forum and the senators will seek to ease tension among the seniors.
Wong said there is also tension surrounding the process of selecting the speaker. Senior senators compiled a list of possible speakers from comments on the forum and brought suggestions to President Brian Casey. Casey then suggested a few options to which the seniors were asked to respond. The strongest senior response was to Stewart.
In discussing the process of choosing a candidate, Wong said she was a messenger in bringing ideas back and forth.
Seniors upset with the pattern of white male speakers pointed out the process and lack of involvement of seniors in the decision.
"I see where they're coming from, but DePauw obviously has a way of picking these commencement speakers and I think that there are different ways to bring diversity to DePauw's campus outside of the commencement speaker," Wong said.