On February 9, 1821, President Monroe signed a charter creating Columbian College, a non-sectarian institution. Over time, Columbian College transformed itself into the also non-sectarian George Washington University (GW) that exists today. This spring’s School of Business graduation exercises, however, call into question the secular claims of the university. The ceremony, which began with an Invocation and concluded with a Benediction from Reverend Dr. Howard Edgar Moore of the Covenant United Methodist Church, violated the secular values upon which the university was created.
Considering the sizeable non-Christian population of the student body, one wonders why the ceremony had a religious aspect at all. In a speech delivered back on October 3, 2002, to the Annual Meeting of the Jewish Social Services Agency, GW’s president, Steven Joel Trachtenberg, himself Jewish, surmised that the Jewish contingent might be some 20 percent of the undergraduate population. Since his speech, the numbers have only increased. According to Hillel’s Guide to Jewish Life on Campus, Jewish students number around 32% on the undergraduate level alone and account for approximately 13% of graduate students. When the school publication, The Hatchet, came out with its annual April Fools edition in 2004 it was jokingly titled “The JewW Hatchet.” It is safe to say that the Jewish population is not only present on GW’s campus but highly visible.
The Reverend’s prayers did not go unnoticed. One young man voiced his protest, ironically, by yelling (though not meaning) “Amen” after the Benediction, and was later told by an administrator not to worry: there would be a Rabbi at the general University Commencement Ceremony. But the question remains: why was Christianity acceptable at the School of Business graduation in the first place?
Margaret Vann, the Director of Special Events for the School of Business, explained the logic. In her thirty-eight years at GW, she said, there has always been a clergy person at graduation. Vann defended the Reverend’s attendance by saying that “GW respects all faiths. It was just a general blessing, part of the tradition, and not intended to change anyone’s beliefs.”
But is the issue really fear of conversion or is it about respect? One atheist student, undergraduate Amanda Calvert was offended because inviting a blessing by a religious figure, she said, “suggests that all the students are religiously affiliated, and that is just not the case.” He would have been better advised, she suggested, to “offer inspiring, non-religious words to the graduates.” Calvert was surprised that such a decision was made at a school like GW, which she had come to know as a politically charged university.
Other religiously unaffiliated audience members noted but reacted differently to the Reverend’s role. Edward J. Cherian, the Chair of the Department of Management Science has been teaching at GW for twenty years and has always considered himself an atheist. When questioned regarding the reason behind the Reverend’s presence at graduation, Cherian agreed with Vann’s assessment. He replied, “I believe it’s something innocent that always happens at public ceremonies and has become part of a ritual.”
Though not all audience members found the Reverend’s role inappropriate, the repeatedly voiced dissent explains why most schools skirt religious affiliation altogether. The GW graduation raises questions about the propriety of incorporating religion into nonsectarian university events. If it could happen here, where will it happen next?
