Bethune-Cookman University students and alumni delivered petitions to convince administrators to reconsider having Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as commencement speaker Wednesday in Daytona Beach.

  •  Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been invited to speak at commencement
  • Protesters marched last week over her invitation
  • Rumors swirled that degrees of students who marched might be withheld

Jasmine Smith is a Bethune-Cookman University student, and she helped hand-deliver boxes of petitions to the B-CU president’s office.

“I would want a say on who my commencement speaker is,” said Smith.

Students say DeVos' recent statements about Historically Black Colleges makes her a bad choice for commencement speaker.

"Since this administration, this current presidential administration has been in place, they have not shown any type of regards to Historically Black Colleges,” said 2010 B-CU graduate Dominik Whitehead.

Devos called Historically Black Colleges pioneers in school choice, which drew criticism from the NAACP and B-CU alumni, who say these colleges did not come from choice but a need when universities turned African-Americans away because they were not white.

The NAACP even called for the resignation of University president, Edison O. Jackson. Jackson did not greet the students when they delivered those petitions.

Students are planning protests during graduation ceremonies, both silent and vocal. Some, students say, will not even walk to stage to get their diplomas in protest.

“Those students who decided not to walk, it is their first amendment right, it’s their right not to walk on graduation,” said Whitehead.

Smith is not graduating this year but supports graduates who decide to protest.

“Because I was forced to have this woman who cannot relate to us in any possible way and who has insulted HBCUs, calling us a school of choice,” said smith.

Smith, Whitehead and all others who signed the petition know those petitions are drawing attention to DeVos and the university president, but importantly, they hope administrators will be more conscious of who next year’s commencement speaker will be, and that students will be included in that choice.