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We had Ben Stein at my commencement address. He was great and absolutely did not brush on preaching politics (he did speak about his time as a speech writer). He was quite inspirational. That was also a very liberal campus, I would add. They once found a swastika spray painted on an elevator and the president shut down classes the next friday and invited community and campus organizations to do teach ins on tolerance and anti-racism. As the president said (paraphrased at the time), we expect better of our community, our community expects better of us, take this day to learn and be better. And then be better.It's peculiar ground, commencements. It's supposed to be for the students, "their day," in recognition for a difficult goal achieved. I could have had the law diploma mailed to me, but for so long that image of donning the doctoral robe and walking up an aisle kept me going when it would have been so easy to call it quits. I'd have been pretty upset if they'd invited some self aggrandizing nitwit as a "keynote speaker" to ruin it.
Inviting him/ her to a seminar to present a controversial view is a whole 'nudder matter. But there are no questions from the crowd at a commencement exercise.
So this idea that liberal college campuses can't handle conservative speakers I don't believe.