Kentucky State University sent its graduates off with a performance by its marching band in the midst of the graduate processional.
HBCU presidents have long wrestled with how to walk the fine line between celebration and liability when it comes to graduates rejoicing on the commencement stage. But could this be a blueprint for how new alumni can party, without prolonging a ceremony or endangering themselves?
Try being neighbors, unbelievable, no common courtesy, respect, very disrespectful
This is HORRIBLE! It plays up every stereotype of Black people. We should know better.
As a 44 year alumnus, I found KSU’s 2019 Graduation a fiasco! We enter to LEARN and go out to SERVE. If our Administration does not set the pace for holistic learning, they have missed the mark! Commencement is a dignified celebration of tradition and pageantry of the students as they prepare to leave the hollowed grounds of their respective universities to go out serve and compete in a global society. Sometimes, we have to step-in and say NO to a ridiculous request. If you are a University President and you have no parental instincts nor do you possess parenting skills, then you should move out of the way and find someone in your administration who does!!! Just because this is what the students wanted did not mean that it was socially and politically correct! This President wants to be popular with the Students and completely ignores the Stakeholders of the University. When you become President and two months later you announce that you will be inaugurated on Founder’s Day which is surrounded with Homecoming and the Board of Regents agrees and the Alumni has been completely disregarded, you don’t care about your stakeholders. When you bring Billy Ray Cyrus in as your entertainment for an inaugural luncheon, and Billy Ray is from Pikeville, Kentucky and the KSU 3 peat NAIA Championship Basketball Team was attacked by the students and citizens of Pikeville because they lost the basketball game, you just slapped those Hall of Famers in the face! Telling your Alumni on the day of your inauguration that you are a disciple of Senator Strom Thurman does not go over well with me!
This President is bucking for HBCU Male President of the Year. I pray that if that is on the table, you will reconsider such an honor. It is not deserving.