A group of students at University of Arizona asked the University for the “Immediate Removal of Eric Schmidt as the UA 2026 Commencement Speaker.”
The students stated: “We, the undersigned students of the University of Arizona, along with concerned staff, faculty, and community members, join to urge you to stand with survivors of sexual violence by revoking the decision to host abuser and Epstein affiliate Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, as the 2026 Commencement Speaker and honorary Doctoral degree recipient. We also call for the university to cut all funding to Schmidt Sciences, Schmidt’s private company.”
Francisco Burke, an undergraduate employee with UA’s Women and Gender Resource Center, told Tuscon.com that the University had not responded to their letter, going “radio silent.”
Well, yesterday, things did not go well for Eric Schmidt at the U of A graduation ceremony.
He was roundly booed by students, especially any time he mentioned AI:
Schmidt Sciences is collaborating with the University of Arizona in “the world’s first fully privately funded space telescope.“
More on the student protest of Schmidt:
Schmidt is the second graduation speaker who made news with boos at graduation, and the second for mentioning AI.
Gloria Caulfield received similar backlash from students when speaking about AI at a graduation for humanities students at the University of Central Florida on May 8.
However, Jensen Huang’s speech at Carnegie Mellon’s graduation apparently was well received:
