April 17, 2015

Dear President Bain,

We write to share our concern about the selection of Rudolph Giuliani as St. John Fisher
Colleges 2015 commencement keynote speaker and recipient of an honorary degree. Given the
Colleges mission, which places education in the service of intellectual inquiry, professional
integrity and civic responsibility, those of us delivering on these goals in our classrooms are
struggling to understand how the Board could offer this great honor to a political figure who has
recently shown himself to be inflammatory and divisive in his commentary. His recent public
arguments do not unite, inspire, or challenge us to be our very best community.
Despite his past leadership record, in the last decade Mr. Giuliani has unfortunately
shrunk to become a highly controversial, divisive ideologue. Consider a speech given by Mr.
Giuliani just this past February at a fundraising dinner for Scott Walker, in which he stated: I do
not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves
America. . . . He doesnt love you. And he doesnt love me. He wasnt brought up the way you
were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country. This is the familiar tactic of
demonizing political opponents during times of social unrest. His penchant for victim-blaming,
most recently exemplified by his disparaging remarks concerning African American communities
and crime, is equally troubling, especially in light of the recent deaths of Michael Brown, John
Crawford, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and Walter Scott (among too many others) at the hands of
law enforcement officials. Sentiments such as these stand in stark contrast to Fishers
commitment to overcoming prejudice and engaging tolerance and appreciation of diversity.
Many of our graduating seniors signed the Fisher Creed in their very first days on campus
during the matriculation ceremony. The first value emphasized on the Creed is respect for
ourselves, for others, and for our community as a whole. Like Fishers mission statement, the
Creed also commits students to building a community that embraces diversity and responsibility.
We believe that by bestowing an honorary degree on Mr. Giuliani, Fisher is in danger of
betraying our fundamental campus values. A graduation ceremony should be a moment in which
we publicly acknowledge and show respect for all members of our diverse student body and their
accompanying families. Regretfully, our speaker selection implies that we do not value all
members of the Fisher family equally. We believe in the excellence of this college, and we
believe that its tradition of celebrating graduates and their families should reflect the goodness,
discipline, and knowledge of our entire Fisher community. The inflammatory language that
characterizes Rudolph Giulianis rhetoric is the opposite of our three pillars, and helps foster an
atmosphere of intolerance and insensitivity.
Every now and then, a campus must stand back and ask itself: are we who we say we are?
President Bain, we respectfully request that you and the Board rescind the Colleges invitation to
Mr. Giuliani. As members of a liberal arts institution, we would support having Mr. Giuliani
come to campus for a lecture and thus allow the free exchange of ideas to unfold. But when a
college invites a commencement speaker and bestows upon him an honorary degree, we appear
to fully validate his point of view. Our commencement ceremony should not give the appearance

of endorsing divisive perspectives but rather it should be a time of celebration and pride in our
students who endeavor to live by the Fisher Creed every day.
Thank you for listening to our views, and we look forward to your response.
Sincerely,