Listen to the story at NPR.org It aired on Weekend Edition Sunday May 2, 2010.
By Spencer Raymond
It’s a right of passage for many college students: stage a protest. At Syracuse University in upstate New York, students are doing just that – speaking out against the school’s choice of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as its commencement speaker.
Every college needs a good protest now and then. And for seniors graduating from Syracuse University in May that time is now.
Dimon is at the center of debate on the Syracuse campus. Dimon will be speaking May 16 at the university’s commencement and a petition to remove him as the speaker has nearly 12 hundred signatures. Audra Culome helped create the student group Take Back Commencement.
“We’re trying to make the point that our economy has failed us over the past couple of years and JP Morgan Chase has been a part of this crisis,” Culome said. “Whether they’ve come out a good guy or a bad guy they’ve been a part of this crisis.”
To students opposing Dimon’s visit, it’s about what he represents: the banking industry, a economy in turmoil, and unemployment.
“I think that if any CEO from any company were to come, you know, even if it was a non profit, I think it would be inappropriate timing,” Culome said.
Dimon was chosen by the school’s Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor off a list recommended by a student panel. Cantor is standing by her decision. She says Dimon can speak with authority on issues that will undoubtedly affect all graduates.
“I don’t really see this as an endorsement of any particular position,” Cantor said, “but rather as an enormous opportunity to bring someone who has tremendous respect in the world in terms of his expertise and excellent of leading a major financial institution and who’s right at the table thinking about these issues. And from my perspective that’s exactly the kind of person that graduates should hear.”
But protesting students here say that kind of person is who’s responsible for the financial meltdown.
Some local residents are also upset. In the past few years, more than 200 people have been laid off at a JPMorgan Chase check processing center nearby.
Some students also don’t like the fact that JP Morgan Chase funded a technology center on campus with a 30 million grant. They feel that buys the bank influence on campus.
“I think if people think about it they’ll realize that we have partnerships with many different both corporations, NGOs,” Cantor said. “If we had a speaker from IBM would one say because we have a partnership with IBM in a green data center on the hill that somehow that was wrong?”
Justin Klimaszewski is senior finance major. He created a facebook event – 55 members strong – in support of Dimon speaking.
“If Dimon hadn’t done the type of job he did leading the company and trying to avoid the financial system as we know it from going to total ruins, that could have been 200,000 more people out of jobs in the US,” Klimaszewski said, “you’re going to try to fault him for trying to correct the problems that were made? I don’t really see that point.”
Dimon is still slated to speak at the commencement. As for what student might do once they’re sitting and Dimon is at the podium. Ryan Hickey helped organize the protest and has one idea.
“We need to create a tangible and a visible event,” Hickey said. “Because if say 900 kids do something all at once in unison wearing something very similar besides the commencement garments that we are supposed to wear I think that would be a huge sign.”
A sign, a protest, that for these young adults, will be their last as students.
Brad Horn contributed to this report.
