Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s invitation to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to deliver this year’s commencement address on May 14, sparked protests from WPI’s Students for a Just and Stable Future. The students noted that the world’s largest oil company and a major funder of climate deniers has given more than $1.3 million to the school. After WPI President Dennis Berkey’s threat to stop protesting students from receiving diplomas drew negative media attention, Berkey withdrew the threat and agreed to allow an alternate commencement speech by Richard Heinberg, senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, directly following Tillerson’s address, which begins at 11 a.m.
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Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy will address graduates at Norwalk Community College on Thursday, May 19, at 4:30 p.m., in the East Campus parking lot.
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Malloy will also deliver the commencement address at Eastern Connecticut State University’s 121st graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 22, at 10 a.m. at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.
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William Bratton
, a security expert who has led the nation’s largest police departments, and his wife, television personality and trial attorney Rikki Klieman, will address Suffolk Law School graduates on Sunday, May 22, at 9:30 a.m., at the Boston Convention Center. CBS news reporter Jeff Glor will speak to Suffolk undergraduates at 2 p.m., at the Boston Convention Center. Peter H. Smyth, chair and CEO of Greater Media Inc., will speak at Suffolk’s Sawyer Business School graduate student commencement on Saturday May 21, at 9:30 a.m., at the Westin Copley Hotel.
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