U.S. Secretary of Education Besty DeVos will deliver this afternoon's commencement address at Daytona Beach's Bethune-Cookman University, despite calls for protests and the resignation of the school's president.
Yesterday protesters hand delivered to President Edison Jackson's office more than 50,000 signed petitions demanding her invitation be withdrawn.
However BCU administrators question that number. They say many of the boxes were nearly empty. In total the signed petitions were more like 6,000 in number.
With the university refusing to back down, the group is claiming hundreds of students and staff will protest.
Earlier this week the NAACP Florida State Conference claimed students who protest could possibly be denied their degrees and employees who voice their concerns could be terminated and called for the immediate resignation of President Dr. Edison Jackson and Board Chairman Dr. Joe Petrock.
Administrators deny that saying opponents can protest as long as they don't disrupt the ceremony.
NAACP Florida State Conference President Adora Obi Nweze says: "We still believe Secretary DeVos should not speak at commencement and that she has no record supporting an honorary degree by Bethune Cookman University. With the recent comments of President Trump suggesting federal funding for HBCU’s is unconstitutional; this validates our view of a horrible decision by the university inviting Secretary DeVos, who still has not pledged to drastically increase funding for all historically black colleges and universities. The university leadership has drastically fumbled and should resign.”
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