Student Association continues to support the university’s decision process for choosing commencement speaker Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., SA President Jon Barnhart said during SA’s Monday night meeting.

The meeting was advertised to the student body as an open forum in which students could ask SA any questions regarding actions it has taken the past semester or its future plans or offer suggestions. Only a handful of students outside the Assembly showed up to the forum. During the meeting, SA’s recent statement in support of the commencement speaker selection process was discussed.

After a two and a half hour meeting among cabinet members on April 14, SA decided to release a statement about its stance on the overall process, Barnhart said. 

“The cabinet came to an ultimatum that we did want to send a statement,” he said. “The best thing we could do was look into the process and see if the process was followed.” 

Students in the Class of 2010 had the opportunity to make nominations for commencement. Class marshals, who serve on the commencement speaker selection committee, narrowed down the list to 15 possible speakers, Barnhart said. Dimon was among the 15 names on the list presented to the administration. 

Barnhart compared the selection process to University Union’s process to choose Block Party acts. Students make nominations for who they would like to see at Block Party, and a shorter list is compiled based on student input. UU chooses who will perform based on costs and who is available. 

“Students understand the UU process,” he said. “The commencement speaker is picked through almost the same process, and they’re not happy about it. That’s the analogy I use to describe the process.” 

In 2002, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was chosen as the commencement speaker. Some students disapproved of the administration’s choice due to the Giuliani administration’s record of racially profiling blacks and Latinos, The Daily Orange previously reported. 

At that time, the 46th Session of SA took action by denouncing the administration’s commencement speaker choice. It also made recommendations to get students more involved in the decision process.

Since then, Barnhart said, the administration increased student involvement drastically. 

“From the recommendations to the way it used to be, it doesn’t seem like there was much student involvement,” Barnhart said.

Part of the SA cabinet met with Chancellor Nancy Cantor and her cabinet to discuss the commencement speaker selection process, among other topics. Barnhart asked if there was a way to make the selection process more student-centered than it already is. No changes have yet been made to the process, Barnhart said. 

Although SA hosted an open forum for students to ask questions, the majority of questions came from Assembly members themselves. In addition to discussion of the commencement speaker, Ben Schott, president of Undergraduate Student Association at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said Barnhart’s administration helped foster a better relationship between Syracuse University and ESF students.

Published on April 26, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Laurence: lgleveil@syr.edu | @lgleveille