WV Wesleyan professor admits she couldn't sit silently as Sen. Shelley Moore Capito gave commencement speech
BUCKHANNON — A couple of weeks ago, West Virginia Wesleyan College professor Emily Ziebarth attended what she characterized as a strange meeting.
The school's administration, she said, told the gathered faculty and staff they would not be told who this year's commencement speaker was.
"There was a strange sort of preemptive defense," Ziebarth said. "The president ran through how he votes and all that, and then gave us the option between coming and not coming. If you weren't comfortable with who was going to speak, you were welcome to not come. And that was the part that bothered me the most. I don't like being given false dilemmas like that."
The secrecy was for naught.
Two days before the graduation ceremony, it leaked online that Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., would be the commencement speaker. After a protest directed at Sen. Capito began gaining traction online, faculty received an email the night before the ceremony announcing the event had been moved inside the chapel. The school stated in the email it was due to unforeseen circumstances beyond their control.
The school didn't release Sen. Capito's name officially until the morning of the graduation ceremony. The second email also said security would be increased due to a security concern unrelated to the keynote speaker.
Wesleyan declined to comment.
Republican elected officials have faced constituent anger at town halls across the country. As President Donald Trump's administration reshapes American government, voters have demanded their elected officials push back on the actions of the Trump administration. A nationwide protest movement has developed, demanding the Trump administration stop dismantling government agencies, stop ignoring the orders of federal courts, especially where immigration is concerned and removing Elon Musk from government, to name a few.
So far, Sen. Capito, Sen. Jim Justice and Rep. Riley Moore have not appeared at any town hall demanded by their voters.
Ziebarth called Wesleyan's decision to keep the commencement speaker secret strange. To her knowledge as a member of academia, other politicians who have spoken at commencement are usually announced way ahead of time. Her feeling, she said, was the school's choice was made less out of an "unrelated" security concern, and more out of a desire to avoid controversy and play both sides.
After the speaker's identity leaked online, Ziebarth said a lot of her colleagues and several of her students weren't comfortable at Wesleyan's choice to have Sen. Capito give the commencement speech.
Ziebarth said the Trump administration was openly attacking higher education and education in general by threatening and defunding institutions of learning across the country.
"She is aligned with an administration that is attacking our values right now," Ziebarth said.
About a mile away off college grounds, a protest of around 45-50 people formed and did their best to make themselves heard by Sen. Capito. The protest pulled itself together with only 48 hours notice. Matt Kerner, coordinating member with the Poor People's Campaign, criticized WV Wesleyan for having Capito as a speaker.
He said Capito has aligned herself with an administration that has damaged thousands of nonprofit agencies like his own by dismantling AmeriCorps. People who took a year off to do nonprofit work before continuing on with a masters or doctorate program just had their plans torn up and thrown in the garbage, he said.
"A lot of Republicans are shying away from cameras, and they don't want to be tied to the legislation they're supporting," Kerner said. "They want to distance themselves and that is our job to shine the light on what they are trying to hide in the darkness. And they're trying to hide an upwards continuation of the transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top right now."
Kimberly Berks, one of the protestors, reacted to a portion of Sen. Capito's speech. In her speech, Sen. Capito said things have to go right in the United States, because if they don't go right here, they're not going to go right in the rest of the world.
"It sounds good, but that's not what they're doing," Berks said. "They're not helping anybody. They're only helping themselves. They're cutting into a lot of programs we can't afford to lose. We'll never get it right because they're not getting it right."
Recently, Sen. Capito pounded the drum after DOGE began dismantling the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown and furloughing its employees. Eventually, the administration relented and restored some workers to their posts but they still face termination in June. Capito urged Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to bring back those workers in order to support the coal industry. Capito also advocated for the Head Start program. The Trump administration restored that program's funding in its budget proposal.
However, Kerner is suspicious of Capito's motives. He said the only reason Capito has been working on behalf of those services is because people stood up and began to complain about the Trump administration cutting those services.
"She did nothing," Kerner said. "People made noise, people pushed her to change, and she did."
On the day of the ceremony, Ziebarth noticed a different atmosphere on campus. While a significant police presence on campus established itself, a stage originally set up for an outdoor ceremony lay unused. Ziebarth suspected the school wanted to avoid any controversy. The email sent to faculty said Capito had agreed to come to Wesleyan a year ago.
What's most tragic to Ziebarth is she herself is a two time graduate of the school, first for her undergraduate and then her graduate degree. The school is where she came home to herself, so seeing the school cavort with a supporter of a president that is attacking higher education is heartbreaking for her.
At the end of the day, Ziebarth had her own personal rebellion. While sitting as a faculty member across the podium where Capito would speak, Ziebarth put on some dark rainbow sunglasses and displayed a love thy neighbor flag once the senator took the stage. She also put on some headphones. While Ziebarth had her own personal feelings, she also made sure her personal statement wouldn't disrupt the ceremony. But there was also no way Capito could miss the statement Ziebarth was trying to make.
"Democracy, in general, that seems to be disappearing rapidly, and so it's a really strange choice to bring a speaker like that there," she said. "They knew that would be contentious there. Why on Earth would you hold a meeting two weeks beforehand, and try to weirdly defend yourself prior to even announcing it, and then give everyone that choice, which again, to me, was basically saying be quiet at home or be quiet here. But I could not sit silently."
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