BALTIMORE _ University of Baltimore President Kurt Schmoke defended his decision to invite U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to speak at the school's fall commencement, even as dozens of students protested against the invitation Monday and hundreds more signed a petition demanding he change his mind.
Schmoke, a former mayor of Baltimore, said students should reserve judgment on the controversial member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet. Hosting DeVos, he said, is "in the best tradition of the university."
"The university stands for freedom of speech," Schmoke said. "My bottom line conclusion is the university stands for debate on controversial issues. I do feel that having the U.S. secretary of education on our campus is something that's very important for the university, and in the long run, I believe that students will recognize that whether they agree with her position on issues or not."
Dozens of students participated in a "class walkout" demonstration Monday afternoon, the first of two protests planned for Monday. UB junior Tracy Johnson stood up midway through her global ethics class and walked out, carrying a neon orange sign that read, #NeverBetsy.
"Commencement is not the place for Betsy DeVos," Johnson said. "She stands against everything we represent."
DeVos supports "school choice," and is a proponent of charter schools and school vouchers. She says her vision will create competition and improve public schools, but teachers' unions and other supporters of public education say the secretary's ideas would undermine the schools that serve the majority of America's students.
"Your graduation day speaker is supposed to represent the best ideals of your school and highest aspirations of the students," Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous said at the rally. "Betsy DeVos is quite simply the most anti-public education secretary of education our country has ever had."
Alec Ross, another Democrat running for governor, stood beside Jealous to listen to students at the event.
In a survey disseminated Friday by the student government association, more than 80 percent of respondents said they did not want DeVos to speak at the Dec.18 graduation ceremony. Nearly 3,000 had signed a petition asking Schmoke to rescind the invitation by the time the rally began in Gordon Plaza.
