As Gov. Glenn Youngkin began his commencement speech Saturday morning, more than 100 graduates of Virginia Commonwealth University staged a walkout.
They held signs, wore Middle Eastern keffiyehs around their shoulders in support of Palestine and marched down Richmond’s streets. About 50 demonstrators walked from the Greater Richmond Convention Center to Abner Clay Park, chanting “One, two, three, four, tell Youngkin no more. Five, six, seven, eight, Richmond we will liberate.”
Youngkin did not pause his remarks as students departed, proceeding with a 15-minute speech that celebrated VCU graduates and steered clear of controversy.
A minute after the demonstration began, it was over, and some attendees said they never saw it. One graduate said she stayed because Saturday’s event was not about politics.
More than 4,100 students graduated from VCU this spring, and about 1,200 attended Saturday’s university-wide ceremony at the convention center, which school officials said is in line with past years’ commencements. Individual departments also held their own ceremonies. An estimated 7,500 people attended Saturday’s event.
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For weeks, VCU students have criticized the university’s invitation for Youngkin to be the keynote speaker. They have spoken against the administration’s stance on diversity, equity and inclusion. They have derided his support for universities that broke up pro-Palestine encampments on campuses. And they raised questions when he asked VCU to send its syllabi for a potential racial literacy requirement to his administration for review.
On April 29, VCU police using riot gear dispersed a group of demonstrators outside the James Branch Cabell Library, arresting 13. Youngkin supported the breakup of demonstrations at VCU, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and other colleges.
When Youngkin asked for VCU to submit the syllabi, faculty worried he would intervene in academic matters. Instead, the university’s board of visitors moved Friday to reject the faculty’s proposal that students be required to take a class on race.
Saturday’s protest
At the convention center on Saturday, one student held a banner that said “globalize the intifada,” a slogan that supports the Palestinian resistance. Another held one saying “teach Black history.” Another sign condemned the Republican-led effort in some jurisdictions to remove certain books from K-12 schools.
Some students asked the board of visitors on Friday to remove Youngkin as the graduation speaker. Despite those requests, the governor spoke Saturday, and the university conferred on him an honorary doctorate degree.
On Friday, Selma Ait-Bella, a VCU junior, offered a wide range of complaints that she said are weighing on students. She lamented the use of force to break up the April 29 demonstration, the increase in tuition and the cuts to a university department called Focused Inquiry, where 14 professors will not have their contracts renewed.
“I can assure you, the student experience is in a dire position,” she said on Friday.
Ait-Bella had served as a presidential student ambassador, a program in which she helped set up events involving the president, including board meetings and graduation. This month, she resigned in protest, saying she is heartbroken to have represented the university.
Some students who walked out Saturday cited the administration’s K-12 transgender policies, which aim to require students to use school bathrooms that match their birth sex and force school employees to refer to students by the pronouns that match their official record.
But for other spectators, the demonstration was just a blip in a two-plus-hour event. One couple, who declined to give their names, watched their daughter graduate with a degree in pharmacy and said they did not know there was a walkout until asked about it by a reporter.
Another graduate said the event was largely undisturbed.
“It wasn’t that noticeable,” she said.
Asked to comment on the walkout, a spokesperson for the governor referred back to Youngkin’s speech Saturday. A spokesperson for VCU declined to comment.
Youngkin’s speech
The governor told graduates Saturday that “life is a symphony” and that they will decide what they compose and how they work with others.
“Find good role models and mentors and try, although it’s hard, to be quick to listen, and slow to speak, and slow to become angry,” Youngkin said at one point.
“And oh, by the way, be grateful for those other performers, and tell them so frequently. And I might suggest you start today with your family.”
Youngkin said his mother, Ellis Youngkin, who died in 2018, was his hero. “And like all of you, VCU helped make her the woman that she was.”
Ellis Youngkin graduated from VCU’s nurse practitioner’s program. She served on the faculty at VCU for 25 years and at Old Dominion University for five years before retiring as the associate dean of the School of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University.
The governor suggested graduates find a life partner who brings out the best in them. He said it’s one of the most important decisions they will make in their life.
“The world needs your music,” he said. “You, all of you, will be the symphony. Make it a masterpiece.”
VCU President Michael Rao conferred upon Youngkin an honorary doctorate degree.
“Governor Youngkin, in recognition of your great achievements, by the authority vested in me by VCU’s board of visitors, I hereby confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters,” Rao said.
Miss America graduates
Camille Schrier is not just Miss America 2020, she’s now a doctor of pharmacy. Schrier earned her degree Saturday.
It was the second time she attended a VCU graduation. In December 2021, she was the commencement ceremony’s keynote speaker. But she said Saturday’s graduation meant more, because it was the culmination of 11 years of schoolwork.
“Earning a doctorate in pharmacy in a lot of ways is more important” than being Miss America, she said. “This is a part of my life I always dreamed of doing.”
Schrier started pharmacy school in 2018 and left for two years to serve as Miss America. Because of the pandemic, she held the title in 2020 and 2021.
When she came back in the fall of 2021, she did better academically because she had a better perspective and motivation, she said. Her classmates and professors treated her like a regular person.
Next, Schrier will go to Philadelphia for a postdoctoral fellowship through Saint Joseph’s University for one year. She’s planning a career in medical strategy or medical communications.
She heard about the walkout during the governor’s speech but decided to stay at the ceremony. Former Gov. Ralph Northam spoke at her undergraduate ceremony at Virginia Tech, and there’s a long history of governors speaking at commencements, she said.
“Today wasn’t about politics,” she added. “It was about celebrating our graduates.”