Former U.S. Representative Marty Meehan has been the Chancellor of UMass Lowell since 2007. By all accounts he is doing a good job, has done a lot of fundraising, and has raised the profile of the school. However, he has also turned the school into a PR machine for himself (Case in point: the Chancellor Martin T. Meehan Educational Excellence Endowment Fund, that name is so long and absurd that it sounds like something out of the Simpsons).
Anyway, since 2007 the following people have been Commencement speakers at UMass Lowell:
2007: Rep. John Lewis
2008: Sen. John Kerry
2009: Former Rep. Harold Ford
What is the common denominator with these three? They are all Democrats. Now, Meehan also served in Congress with a number of Republicans, particularly Newt Gingrich. Why doesn't he ask some of those folks to speak? If I were a student, parent, or alum, I'd be getting pretty annoyed that the university gives a platform year after year to politicos from the left.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
umm wouldn't it make sense that Democrats would be more friendly with Democrats and those would be the ones most likely to come speak at commencement, the ones Meehan has a personal relationship with?
Also I don't think a large percentage of the UML population is clamoring for Newt Gingrich or any Republican to come to speak there. Thats almost like me saying that someone should invite a liberal to speak at your church.
-Jim
Post a Comment