In an effort to keep the peace at Sweet Briar College's (SBC) final commencement ceremony, the school's president will not attend.
According to the Washington Post, James F. Jones Jr. announced his decision Friday, citing potential disruptions to the ceremony if he is there. Before his emailed statement, Jones reportedly told a group of seniors rehearsing for Saturday's statement.
"After much deliberation and consultation with members of the campus community, I write with great sadness to tell you that I have reluctantly decided not to participate in Saturday's commencement ceremony," Jones' email read. "In the last twenty-four hours, it has come to my attention that there are faculty members and alumnae who have threatened, sometimes quite publicly, to repeatedly disrupt the ceremony tomorrow should I preside, despite the fact that my doing so would honor the College's tradition to preside as have all other Sweet Briar presidents."
SBC announced in March the school's board of directors voted in favor of closing the women's liberal arts institution for financial reasons. In the midst of faculty-led backlash, Marcia Thom-Kaley, an assistant music professor at SBC, wrote in an op-ed for the Roanoke Times that Jones should not attend the commencement ceremony.
"Graduation should, truly, be a time of celebration for our graduates and their families. It should also be a time of bittersweet gathering among people who have endeavored to become better simply by knowing what an outstanding academic environment can achieve on a small campus community," she wrote. "Your presence at graduation will only serve to continue to divide us. You will potentially subject yourself and your family to open criticism, verbal assault and disdainful treatment. You will force us to choose between our love for our students and our innate belief that wrongdoing should never be celebrated nor ignored - on any level. Indeed, you will ask us to turn away from our deepest calling as teachers and behave in a manner in which we would never ask our students to behave - quiet, complicit, apathetic."
The 106th - and final - commencement ceremony in SBC's history figures to be less celebratory than those in years past, but there seemed to be no way Jones' presence apparently would have helped. The Post learned some students were planning on not shaking Jones' hand upon receiving their degree.
"I do believe, however, that we can have the Commencement Ceremony our graduates deserve if you will grant us this one favor. In doing so, you will show us that you do, indeed, care about us as a community," Thom-Kaley wrote. "Regardless of your apparent commitment to closing our beloved home, please consider giving us one last space to grieve together for what we have endured these past nine weeks; give us one last opportunity to truly celebrate our students without interruption. Finally, give us one last opportunity to be the family we have become."
