RICHMOND — Dozens of Virginia Commonwealth University students walked out of their graduation ceremony Saturday morning as Gov. Glenn Youngkin delivered the commencement address, demonstrating support for Palestinians and protesting some of the Republican’s crusade against efforts to promote racial equity in education.
The selection of Youngkin as speaker drew criticism from some ahead of the ceremony. The university’s chapter of the NAACP this week urged VCU officials to rescind the invitation, and some students in recent days said they would hold a walkout during the ceremony.
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On Saturday, attendees at the commencement were given cards congratulating the graduating class but warning that anyone who disrupted the ceremony was subject to removal.
As Youngkin began his speech, dozens of the graduates in attendance filed out of the Greater Richmond Convention Center, mostly in silence, some holding kaffiyeh scarves and signs aloft. “Teach Black history,” one read. “Book bans [do not equal] respect for learning,” read another.
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The protest did not disrupt the program, though an initial burst of applause for the protesters briefly drowned out the governor’s speech. Youngkin pressed on with his address, which included a tribute to his late mother and an extended symphony metaphor.
“The world needs your music,” he said.
Spokesmen for VCU and the governor’s office declined to comment on the walkout.
More than 4,700 VCU students graduated this spring, about 3,000 of them undergraduates. It is a diverse student body, representing 40 countries. More than 900 were first-generation college students, VCU said ahead of the ceremony.
Adding to tensions on Saturday, the ceremony came about two weeks after police used pepper spray to disperse a crowd at a pro-Palestinian demonstration on VCU’s campus. Thirteen people, including six students, were arrested.
The event was among the demonstrations spreading on college campuses around the country, with more than 2,800 arrested as campus officials and protesters facing off in recent weeks. In Virginia, more than 80 people were arrested at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, a dozen at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg and more than 25 at the University of Virginia.
VCU, in downtown Richmond just a mile west of the state Capitol, has a long tradition of hosting the sitting governor as commencement speaker. Terry McAuliffe (D) gave the address in 2015, as did Robert F. McDonnell (R) in 2011, Tim Kaine (D) in 2008, Mark R. Warner (D) in 2004, Jim Gilmore (R) in 1999 and George Allen (R) in 1997, according to the university.
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The VCU chapter of the NAACP sent a letter to university President Michael Rao and the board of visitors Wednesday demanding that the university revoke the governor’s invitation to speak. “Since becoming Governor of Virginia, Youngkin has worked to intimidate and silence educators with anti-racist pedagogies,” the letter stated, citing a short-lived tip line for parents to report the teaching of “divisive concepts” and the reversal of protections for transgender youth.
Asked about the calls to cancel his appearance, Youngkin said Tuesday he hoped the focus would be on the students and their achievements. “I think that anyone who thinks they’re going to disrupt this for their own personal goals, I think it’s misguided,” Youngkin told reporters at an event in Richmond. “Let’s celebrate the students. Let’s honor the students.”
Opposition to Youngkin was due, in part, to the governor’s objections to a proposal to require VCU students to take a course in racial literacy. The school conceived the plan amid the racial reckoning that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and was still working to implement it when Youngkin raised concerns early this year.
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In March, a Youngkin spokesman said the governor was concerned that such a mandate would promote leftist “groupthink.” “Virginia’s public institutions should be teaching our students how to think, not what to think and not advancing ideological conformity,” spokesman Christian Martinez told Virginia Public Media.
On Friday, VCU’s governing board voted against requiring the racial literacy course, but will still make some courses available for interested students.
“Central to the board’s deliberations was a commitment to upholding academic freedom while empowering students with flexibility and autonomy in their educational journey,” VCU said in a written statement after the vote. “The discussion clearly expressed support for the racial literacy classes, and these courses are accessible to students who wish to explore them.”
Outside the convention center, Taya Coates, a mass communications graduate, said she was on the fence about walking out until the students around her started to rise. She decided that she, too, wanted to stand against the governor, who she said didn’t reflect her values.
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“It just doesn’t represent our university,” Coates, 23, said of Youngkin’s appearance. Around her, friends embraced and cried. Families cheered for their graduates, posing for photos and remarking about how proud they were of the display.
A smaller group of graduates joined a group of demonstrators outside the convention center. The group marched through the streets chanting “Free Palestine” until they reached Abner Clay Park, about a half mile from the commencement ceremony.
A handful of graduates, still in their caps and gowns, spoke about why they walked out.
Arrington Evans, a political science graduate and member of the NAACP at VCU, said the governor’s actions, particularly his opposition to equity initiatives in education, was in opposition to the kind of work she had been advocating for at VCU.
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“This matters more to me, doing right by your classmates and the people in your community, than sitting there doing nothing,” Evans said. “Actions speak louder than words. And that’s what this was.”
In his speech, Youngkin did not acknowledge the protest or make any reference to the politically strife moment. He highlighted some members of the graduating class, including an immigrant from Uganda and another who had overcome cancer. Youngkin advised graduates to “make tomorrow better than today,” choose their “life partner” wisely and be slow to anger.
Before the walkout, Saturday’s graduation began like any other, with robed and smiling graduates waving to relatives and snapping selfies as they marched into the ceremony.
The ceremony wrapped in ordinary fashion two hours later, with black and gold balloons dropping from the ceiling and getting batted around like beach balls.
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The walkout was for many a forgettable blip in an otherwise celebratory day. That was a relief to attendees who’d arrived wary of potential disruptions or even violence.
“I’m just hoping that doesn’t happen and we can be here and celebrate these graduates in peace,” LaKeyda Robinson, 45, of Alexandria, said as she watched her “firstborn niece,” Dhasia Allen, walk into the ceremony.
Marcos Chavez, a 54-year-old Bolivian immigrant who works as carpenter in Herndon, was not giving a thought to Gaza or Youngkin. For him, the day was all about his daughter, Natalia. Already the first person in the family to earn a college degree, on Saturday she graduated from VCU’s school of dentistry.
“Right now my focus is on my daughter,” he said. “That’s it.”
