D’Youville plans separate commencement ceremonies after A.I. speaker draws backlash

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — She has delivered presentations to world leaders in over 60 countries, addressed the United Nations, and was awarded citizenship in Saudi Arabia. What students at D'Youville University aren't pleased about is that Sophia is an A.I.-powered robot, taking center stage at their commencement come May.

“We all graduated high school on TV, I never got that human aspect of a graduation. I never got to walk across the stage or do that and this was my opportunity to have a cool commencement speaker,” said D’Youville senior Sebastian Herbst.

Rather than a person, the college hired Sophia, a "social humanoid robot," to be this year's speaker. Yes, a machine will be sending graduates off into their futures -- and it's drawn the ire of some students.

An email, forwarded to News 4 WIVB Friday by a student, shows in response to the backlash, D’Youville is making arrangements for a separate commencement ceremony without Sophia the robot that will take place at D’Youville's Kavinoky Theatre.

Students said they felt like the email was a slap in the face.

“I find this insulting in a way to segregate the opinions of our class and to separate us by making sure that the people that don't agree with them are not involved in the ceremony, which is wrong," one student said.

“We don't want to be separated. Our viewpoint is we don't want a robot at our commencement ceremony,” concluded another student.

The robot will be taking part in a conversation with Student Government Association president John Rizk.

“I use AI every day, multiple times a day,” Rizk said. “I am much more productive and organized having AI in my pocket to help me with daily tasks. A.I. to me is what the calculator was to my parents. I’m excited to interview Sophia and help affirm AI is not going away, and that my generation needs to figure out how to appropriately deal with it.”

The cost to the college isn't known, but a Las Vegas-based talent booking agency quotes a range from $40,000 to $75,000.

“That just seems like a little bit of a gross allocation of resources that the school could use in so many other ways, as well as sort of taking the opportunity away from giving it to an alumnus or someone else from Buffalo,” Herbst said.

University President Dr. Lorrie Clemo answered questions via email, saying that by bringing Sophia to campus, “D’Youville University hopes to ensure all students understand technology and can think critically about the future they build for us.”

One student told News 4 WIVB that they felt they were missing out on a personal connection to a once-in-a-lifetime event.

“We've always dealt with human interactions throughout our college experience in my program. So, I think you just kind of introduce those right at graduation. It's distasteful to us,” the student said.

D'Youville VP for student affairs Benjamin Grant said in a statement this is an opportunity to, “model what we hope our students will take away – the ability to have constructive dialogue on difficult topics that are polarizing.”

Students still are calling for a replacement speaker via a petition that's already gathered nearly 2,000 signatures as of Friday.

“By being a health care school, we should be able to have a speaker that has human emotions, human empathy, most importantly, human connection,” said one senior.

We reached out to the University to confirm if the commencement ceremony on May 11th would indeed be split. With Sophia at the LECOM Harborcenter and the ceremony without the robot taking place at Kavinoky Theatre, we have not heard back.