Faculty Senate reverses ban on student speakers at commencement, rejects new authorship policy

The Faculty Senate reversed a recent decision that prohibited students from speaking at graduation ceremonies during its Thursday meeting. 

School of Humanities and Sciences Dean Debra Satz announced the reversal, restoring departments’ authority to decide whether and how to include student voices at commencement.

She explained that the original decision resulted from concerns that some speeches over recent years had strayed from the commencement’s occasion, overshadowing the experiences of students and families.

“Families complained that the event was ruined for them, and some departments and programs sought our help,” Satz said. “Having student speakers at graduation has always been a privilege and not a right.” 

She noted that some departments have never included student speakers at their commencement ceremonies.

However, after deliberating on student and faculty concerns, the University rescinded its decision and concluded that individual departments are best positioned to determine the structure of their respective ceremonies.

“I recognize that there is value in our past practice of allowing departments the autonomy to decide for themselves whether and how they wish to include student voices in their own graduation ceremonies.” Satz said.

The Senate also rejected a proposed university-wide policy on authorship of research papers brought forward by the Committee on Research (C-Res). The draft of the policy outlined four criteria that all prospective authors would be required to meet: making an intellectual contribution, drafting or critically revising or reviewing the work, approving the final version and taking public responsibility for the content. 

Chair of C-Res and engineering professor Meagan Mauter presented the proposal, describing it as a potential policy implemented across all departments.

However, senators voiced concern that a single, university-level policy could not realistically accommodate the diversity of research practices across disciplines.

“This is a big departure from current practice in my field,” computer science professor Keith Winstein said. He said situations where intellectual input does not necessitate direct edits to a paper present potential conflicts with the proposal.

Others highlighted that requiring written permission from acknowledged contributors could be impractical.

“I’m very uncomfortable passing a set of rules when we know it’s impossible to follow,” said Jonathan Berk, a professor at the Graduate School of Business.

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